Gateway Wealth Partners LLC Grows Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Gateway Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 36.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 35,553 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,536 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 2.3% of Gateway Wealth Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $7,488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Apple by 17.9% during the 1st quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 206,455 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 31,278 shares in the last quarter. Access Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the first quarter worth $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.7% during the second 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 last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter worth $208,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on AAPL shares. Barclays dropped their price target on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Evercore ISI restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.51.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at $42,309,126.60. This trade represents a 24.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $111,148,695.84. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 404,040 shares of company stock valued at $91,062,512. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $225.00 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.01, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $226.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $215.60. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $237.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during 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 prior year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

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.