Braun Stacey Associates Inc. Purchases 12,232 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Braun Stacey Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 643,882 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,232 shares during the period. Apple comprises approximately 5.7% of Braun Stacey Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Braun Stacey Associates Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $150,025,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC now owns 64,015 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,916,000 after acquiring an additional 1,066 shares during the last quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC increased 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 worth $60,958,000 after purchasing an additional 7,606 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 126,210 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC now owns 69,824 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,269,000 after purchasing an additional 2,565 shares during the period. Finally, Silicon Valley Capital Partners increased its position in Apple by 12.8% during the 3rd quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners now owns 253,743 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $59,122,000 after buying an additional 28,799 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Apple Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $222.78 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $240.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $230.70. The company has a market cap of $3.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.64, a PEG ratio of 2.19 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 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 business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company 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 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on AAPL shares. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday. Maxim Group raised their target price on shares of Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, October 25th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $238.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.