Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 323,639 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,006 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 3.6% of Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $62,310,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wyrmwood Management LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 69.0% in the fourth quarter. Wyrmwood Management LLC now owns 169 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 118.0% in the fourth quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC now owns 218 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the period. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its position in shares of Apple by 70.2% during the 3rd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 509 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Cordant Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 27.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 645 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $110,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Finally, Life Planning Partners Inc bought a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $132,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Maxim Group began coverage on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $178.00 target price on the stock. Redburn Partners lowered Apple to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price objective 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 on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $158.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.62.

Apple Trading Up 2.5 %

AAPL opened at $173.50 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $199.62. The stock has a market cap of $2.68 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.02, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a 50 day moving average of $172.86 and a 200-day moving average of $181.77.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $119.60 billion during 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.88 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total transaction of $9,262,139.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at $18,768,046.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total transaction of $9,262,139.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares in the company, valued at $23,068,376.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 366,271 shares of company stock worth $63,653,887. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.