Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 53,714 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 459 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 6.5% of Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $12,515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Apple by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,160,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,807 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,909,457,000 after acquiring an additional 3,245,281 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 34,619,614 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,291,583,000 after acquiring an additional 1,065,759 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 13.4% in the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 20,008,650 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $4,214,222,000 after purchasing an additional 2,359,409 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on AAPL. StockNews.com cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, November 29th. KeyCorp downgraded Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Bank of America increased their price target on Apple to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $236.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,309,126.60. This represents a 24.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $254.49 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $234.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $225.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $255.00.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.