Beacon Financial Advisory LLC Sells 3,634 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Beacon Financial Advisory LLC decreased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 10.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 31,221 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 3,634 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up about 2.5% of Beacon Financial Advisory LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $7,274,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Balentine LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 88.0% during the 3rd quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 108,534 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $25,288,000 after buying an additional 50,801 shares during the period. HF Advisory Group LLC raised its position in Apple by 11.2% in the third quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 10,868 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,532,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098 shares during the period. JFG Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 254.3% during the 3rd quarter. JFG Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,952 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,018,000 after purchasing an additional 9,296 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Johnson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,311 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $771,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Family Office LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 48.3% in the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Family Office LLC now owns 439,469 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $102,396,000 after buying an additional 143,054 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AAPL. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Moffett Nathanson reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $188.00 price objective (down from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. KeyCorp lowered Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.64.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’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 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $242.70 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The company has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.92, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $239.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $229.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its 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. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.45%.

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.