Marotta Asset Management Sells 49 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Marotta Asset Management cut its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,504 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 49 shares during the period. Marotta Asset Management’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,982,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the 1st quarter valued at $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP lifted its holdings in Apple by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Apple during the second quarter worth $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the second quarter valued at $208,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AAPL. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. The trade was a 35.49 % decrease in their position. The sale 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 Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 over the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Apple Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $228.28 on Wednesday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.49. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $227.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $217.31. 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 capitalization of $3.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

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.