Sanctuary Advisors LLC Takes $460.30 Million Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 2,185,450 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $460,299,000. Apple accounts for 3.3% of Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Apple by 17.9% during the first quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 206,455 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 31,278 shares during the period. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Apple during the second quarter valued at about $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Apple during the first quarter valued at about $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Sage Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Apple during the second quarter valued at about $206,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Loop Capital lowered their price target on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group upped their target price on Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research 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 given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.51.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at $24,416,137.76. This represents a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 404,040 shares of company stock valued at $91,062,512 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Down 1.4 %

AAPL opened at $225.00 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $227.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $216.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $237.49.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 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.