Jeffrey E. Williams Sells 59,162 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,378,155.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Apple Stock Down 2.2 %

AAPL stock opened at $172.69 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $176.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $182.32. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $162.80 and a 52 week high of $199.62. 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 (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.09. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. The firm had revenue of $119.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.88 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, February 16th. Piper Sandler Companies downgraded Apple to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $220.00 to $205.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Loop Capital cut their price objective on Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.08.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its position in Apple by 20.0% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 2,615,701 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $456,728,000 after acquiring an additional 435,891 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.4% during the first quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 240,628 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares during the last quarter. Markel Corp grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the first quarter. Markel Corp now owns 1,206,990 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $210,752,000 after purchasing an additional 8,450 shares during the last quarter. Camden Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 9.2% during the first quarter. Camden Capital LLC now owns 156,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $27,305,000 after purchasing an additional 13,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Island Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the first quarter. Harbor Island Capital LLC now owns 135,325 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $23,629,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

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.