Abacus Planning Group Inc. Lowers Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Abacus Planning Group Inc. cut its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 110,657 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 5,205 shares during the period. Apple makes up 4.5% of Abacus Planning Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Abacus Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $21,305,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 20.0% during the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 2,615,701 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $456,728,000 after buying an additional 435,891 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 240,628 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,016,000 after buying an additional 1,040 shares during the period. Markel Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 1,206,990 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $210,752,000 after buying an additional 8,450 shares during the period. Camden Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. Camden Capital LLC now owns 156,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $27,305,000 after buying an additional 13,200 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Island Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Island Capital LLC now owns 135,325 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $23,629,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Apple Trading Down 2.2 %

AAPL opened at $172.69 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $162.80 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. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $176.40 and a 200 day moving average of $182.32.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.09. The company 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 firm’s revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.88 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Investors of record on Monday, February 12th were given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total value of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $84,378,155.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total value of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $84,378,155.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 366,271 shares of company stock worth $63,653,887. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AAPL. Redburn Atlantic cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Loop Capital decreased their target price on Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, March 25th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.08.

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.