Bristlecone Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Bristlecone Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 217,230 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,205 shares during the period. Apple makes up 4.1% of Bristlecone Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Bristlecone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $50,614,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AAPL. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the third quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $813,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. raised its position in Apple by 0.3% in the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory boosted its position in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lowery Thomas LLC grew its position in Apple by 0.7% during the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AAPL. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Apple to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $236.78.

Apple Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $258.20 on Thursday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $258.21. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 42.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average of $235.93 and a 200-day moving average of $226.77.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple 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.