Opus Capital Group LLC Sells 146 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Opus Capital Group LLC reduced its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,577 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 146 shares during the quarter. Opus Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,151,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in Apple by 10.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,121,656,000 after buying an additional 5,893,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 1.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 91,568,390 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $21,335,435,000 after buying an additional 1,742,087 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 3.4 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $199.74 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company has a market cap of $3.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.70, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.92 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $217.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $229.69.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 15.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total value of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,072,269.86. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. This trade represents a 8.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 182,451 shares of company stock worth $40,818,720. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of several research reports. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Apple from $252.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Apple from $290.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Argus raised Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.00.

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.