Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Position Lessened by SFE Investment Counsel

SFE Investment Counsel lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 84,931 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,053 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 4.5% of SFE Investment Counsel’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. SFE Investment Counsel’s holdings in Apple were worth $21,268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its position in shares of Apple by 21.1% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 3,380,064 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $787,631,000 after acquiring an additional 588,427 shares during the last quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 0.3% during the third quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 17,236 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,016,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Rodgers & Associates LTD boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rodgers & Associates LTD now owns 6,541 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,524,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 109,894 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $25,605,000 after buying an additional 280 shares during the period. Finally, Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter worth $53,365,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted 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. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Argus raised shares of Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Apple to $236.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.85.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Apple Price Performance

AAPL opened at $196.79 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $220.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $230.28. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.08 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

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.