Capital Investment Advisors LLC Acquires 17,121 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 438,984 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,121 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 2.1% of Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $102,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the second quarter valued at $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 88.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the period. Cordant Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 34.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 678 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $158,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Sage Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $206,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. StockNews.com cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Melius Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $236.78.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Apple Stock Up 0.6 %

AAPL stock opened at $247.96 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $250.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a fifty day moving average of $231.63 and a 200-day moving average of $222.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 trillion, a PE ratio of 40.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

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.