Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Purchases 3,540 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 462,967 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,540 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 7.3% of Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Apple were worth $107,871,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth about $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its position in shares of Apple by 88.9% during the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Hoese & Co LLP raised its position in shares of Apple by 6.7% during the second quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $175,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Apple in the second quarter worth approximately $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the second quarter worth approximately $208,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $234.93 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.64, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $228.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $219.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $237.49.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 over the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group lifted their target price on Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued 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.com, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.25.

About Apple

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.