Miracle Mile Advisors LLC Has $118.83 Million Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Miracle Mile Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 2.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 509,991 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 14,133 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 2.7% of Miracle Mile Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $118,828,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Verus Financial Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $3,566,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory grew its holdings in Apple by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $287,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Core Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in Apple by 1.7% in the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 0.7% in the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the second quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on AAPL. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Maxim Group boosted their price objective on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $273.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $235.25.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $111,148,695.84. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL traded up $1.35 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $229.87. 38,168,252 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 43,855,068. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The company has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.81, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.24. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $227.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $218.06.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple's payout ratio is 16.45%.

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.