Leverty Financial Group LLC Purchases 101 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Leverty Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,431 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 0.5% of Leverty Financial Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Leverty Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $853,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Atlantic Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Wyrmwood Management LLC grew its stake in Apple by 69.0% during the fourth quarter. Wyrmwood Management LLC now owns 169 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Summit Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in Apple by 16,252.3% during the first quarter. Summit Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,992,420 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 6,949,659 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC grew its stake in Apple by 21.7% during the first quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 448 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, West Tower Group LLC acquired a new stake in Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $64,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on AAPL shares. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Apple from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Redburn Partners cut Apple to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Apple from $205.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Apple from $160.00 to $158.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.27.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $173.31 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $181.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $182.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.68 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.29. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $155.98 and a 12 month high of $199.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $119.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.99 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.88 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 12th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 14.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total value of $18,094,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at $802,392,181.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.