Sax Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 9,165 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Sax Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 16.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 47,092 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 9,165 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 1.4% of Sax Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $6,119,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Apple by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,995,750 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $221,753,959,000 after buying an additional 8,734,393 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Apple by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 80,739,774 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,097,970,000 after buying an additional 1,155,915 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank increased its position in Apple by 13.1% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 71,060,708 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $12,407,910,000 after buying an additional 8,230,300 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in Apple by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,874,884 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,779,544,000 after buying an additional 698,686 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Apple by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 48,826,270 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,525,555,000 after buying an additional 424,839 shares during the period. 57.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on AAPL. Raymond James dropped their price target on Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Cowen decreased their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Fundamental Research set a $183.86 price objective on Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 17th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Apple from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 5th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on Apple from $173.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.74.

Apple Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $174.20 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $124.17 and a 12-month high of $176.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.74 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $165.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $150.87.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The iPhone maker reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.08. Apple had a return on equity of 165.72% and a net margin of 24.49%. The firm had revenue of $94.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 5.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 15th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 12th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.30%.

Apple announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 4th that allows the company to buyback $90.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,092 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $708,979.92. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,881,483.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,092 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.26, for a total value of $708,979.92. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,881,483.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 56,072 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.17, for a total value of $9,261,412.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,052 shares in the company, valued at approximately $541,766,188.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 439,529 shares of company stock valued at $71,703,657. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple Company Profile

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Apple, Inc engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and other varieties of related services. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific. The Americas segment includes North and South America.