Appleton Partners Inc. MA Cuts Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA reduced its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 381,867 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 9,202 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 6.5% of Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Apple were worth $88,975,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Granite Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 2.7% during the second quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $60,958,000 after acquiring an additional 7,606 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Apple by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,473,224,000 after buying an additional 126,210 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,928,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $406,099,000 after buying an additional 95,235 shares in the last quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 387.3% during the second quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,128,000 after buying an additional 19,352 shares during the period. Finally, Gentry Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the second quarter worth about $876,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on AAPL shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Apple to $236.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Loop Capital dropped their price objective on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.51.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at $24,416,137.76. This trade represents a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 404,040 shares of company stock valued at $91,062,512 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $228.02 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The company has a market cap of $3.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average is $227.18 and its 200 day moving average is $217.00.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

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.