Black Swift Group LLC Trims Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Black Swift Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 13,171 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 249 shares during the period. Black Swift Group LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,536,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wyrmwood Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 69.0% in the fourth quarter. Wyrmwood Management LLC now owns 169 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 118.0% in the fourth quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC now owns 218 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. PayPay Securities Corp boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 70.2% in the third quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 509 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $87,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Cordant Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 27.7% during the third quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 645 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $110,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Life Planning Partners Inc acquired a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter worth $132,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on AAPL. Barclays lowered their price objective on Apple from $160.00 to $158.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Bank of America raised Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $208.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.05.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $165.84 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $174.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $182.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $162.80 and a 1-year high of $199.62. The company has a market cap of $2.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.27.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 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 business had revenue of $119.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.88 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 12th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.95%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total value of $9,262,139.28. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Profile

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.