Level Financial Advisors Lowers Stake in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Level Financial Advisors reduced its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,611 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 228 shares during the period. Level Financial Advisors’ holdings in Apple were worth $1,767,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC now owns 13,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,260,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Salus Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Salus Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,310 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $291,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the period. Sharpepoint LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Sharpepoint LLC now owns 1,523 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $322,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC now owns 4,016 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $892,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, Redwood Financial Network Corp lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 8,720 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,184,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 47,125 shares of Apple 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. The trade was a 20.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total transaction of $11,071,116.07. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,181,866.93. The trade was a 23.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 254,922 shares of company stock worth $64,320,190 over the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $240.00 target price (up previously from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Melius Research set a $290.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $248.29.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $258.06 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.83 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.09. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $235.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $215.55.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

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

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.