Claris Financial LLC Has $4.72 Million Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Claris Financial LLC reduced its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 36.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 22,990 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 13,218 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up about 3.6% of Claris Financial LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. Claris Financial LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,717,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in Apple by 573,627.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $39,065,374,000 after purchasing an additional 205,656,808 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $38,942,255,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Apple in the 1st quarter worth approximately $17,472,482,000. PKS Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 98,917.0% in the 2nd quarter. PKS Advisory Services LLC now owns 57,956,620 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $12,106,000 after buying an additional 57,898,088 shares during the period. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Apple by 20,464.8% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 27,069,029 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,553,753,000 after buying an additional 26,937,401 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. Melius Research set a $345.00 price target on Apple in a report on Friday, October 31st. Loop Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 target price (up previously from $315.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, December 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $282.51.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $274.11 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month high of $288.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company has a market cap of $4.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $268.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $237.81.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.11. Apple had a net margin of 26.92% and a return on equity of 164.05%. The business had revenue of $102.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.65 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.64 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 10th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.92%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.81, for a total value of $33,375,798.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $842,412,558.95. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 3,752 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.23, for a total value of $1,017,654.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 15,098 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,095,030.54. This represents a 19.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 228,052 shares of company stock worth $58,604,588 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is owned by 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.