Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. Decreases Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. reduced its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 24.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 589,700 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 196,000 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 2.1% of Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd.’s holdings in Apple were worth $147,673,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Apple by 10.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,074,372,000 after acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after acquiring an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after acquiring an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 25,285.2% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 9,628,864 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,411,260,000 after acquiring an additional 9,590,933 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their price target on Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer downgraded Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $243.05.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $181.46 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $228.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $232.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.08 and a 12-month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. Equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total transaction of $8,683,316.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. This trade represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value of $24,184,616.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 182,451 shares of company stock valued at $40,818,720. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.