Guild Investment Management Inc. Purchases 940 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Guild Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 5.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 17,298 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 940 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 4.3% of Guild Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Guild Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,031,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Granite Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $60,958,000 after purchasing an additional 7,606 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in Apple by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,473,224,000 after buying an additional 126,210 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Apple by 5.2% in the second quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,928,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $406,099,000 after acquiring an additional 95,235 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Apple by 34.9% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 200,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $46,650,000 after acquiring an additional 51,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bellwether Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 387.3% during the second quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,128,000 after acquiring an additional 19,352 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $237.33 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.59 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.03, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $229.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $219.59. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.81.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple 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 value of $13,550,347.80. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on AAPL. Melius Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Loop Capital dropped their price target on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.68.

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.