Apple Inc. $AAPL Shares Sold by Provident Wealth Management LLC

Provident Wealth Management LLC trimmed its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 9,573 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 61 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises approximately 0.6% of Provident Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Provident Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,964,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Salus Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.9% in the first quarter. Salus Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,310 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $291,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Sharpepoint LLC raised its stake in Apple by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Sharpepoint LLC now owns 1,523 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $322,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Redwood Financial Network Corp raised its stake in Apple by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 8,720 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,184,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC raised its stake in Apple by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC now owns 4,016 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $892,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc. now owns 20,946 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $4,298,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $240.00 target price (up from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $223.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $205.82 to $205.16 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $248.29.

Apple Stock Up 2.0%

AAPL stock opened at $252.29 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $169.21 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The company has a 50-day moving average of $241.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $216.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.09.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 15.78%.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 47,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.79, for a total transaction of $12,101,228.75. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 179,158 shares in the company, valued at $46,005,982.82. This represents a 20.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,199 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.39, for a total transaction of $1,038,790.61. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 8,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,168,373.35. This trade represents a 32.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 259,121 shares of company stock valued at $65,358,981 over the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.