Novus Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 7,713 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Novus Advisors LLC bought a new position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 7,713 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,932,000. Apple makes up about 1.9% of Novus Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Amara Financial LLC. acquired a new stake in Apple in the 3rd quarter valued at $288,000. Simmons Bank grew its position in shares of Apple by 1.6% in the third quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 132,641 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $30,905,000 after purchasing an additional 2,086 shares during the period. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the third quarter worth about $4,972,000. SYM FINANCIAL Corp raised its position in shares of Apple by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 28,626 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,670,000 after purchasing an additional 1,695 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its stake in Apple by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,723,104 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $876,483,000 after buying an additional 103,856 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total value of $7,950,786.93. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $87,377,116.59. This trade represents a 8.34% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 15,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,233,815.27. The trade was a 22.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $211.26 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.53, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $206.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $226.68.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. Apple’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were given a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.20%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Raymond James reduced their target price on Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. KeyCorp raised shares of Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Maxim Group increased their target price on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.80.

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.