Thomas Story & Son LLC Has $10.93 Million Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Thomas Story & Son LLC lessened its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 46,926 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,595 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises 4.5% of Thomas Story & Son LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Thomas Story & Son LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $10,934,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AAPL. Bull Oak Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 252.3% during the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its position in Apple by 88.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 3rd quarter valued at about $110,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. increased its holdings in Apple by 34.3% during the 3rd quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 678 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $158,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $233.28 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $240.63 and its 200 day moving average is $230.52. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10. 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 company has a market cap of $3.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.37, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. Research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s 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 owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on AAPL. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.85.

About Apple

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.