Proffitt & Goodson Inc. Acquires 254 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Proffitt & Goodson Inc. raised its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,573 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 254 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 0.7% of Proffitt & Goodson Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Proffitt & Goodson Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,327,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC now owns 64,015 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $14,916,000 after acquiring an additional 1,066 shares during the last quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 2.7% in the second quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $60,958,000 after purchasing an additional 7,606 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in Apple by 1.8% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,473,224,000 after acquiring an additional 126,210 shares during the period. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the third quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC now owns 69,824 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,269,000 after buying an additional 2,565 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Silicon Valley Capital Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 12.8% in the third quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners now owns 253,743 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $59,122,000 after purchasing an additional 28,799 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.85.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $229.98 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $240.95 and its 200 day moving average is $230.56. The company has a market capitalization of $3.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Company Profile

Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide. The company offers iPhone, a line of smartphones; Mac, a line of personal computers; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; and wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod.