Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. Cuts Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,252 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 270 shares during the quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,816,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Amara Financial LLC. bought a new position in Apple during the third quarter valued at approximately $288,000. Silicon Valley Capital Partners boosted its stake in Apple by 12.8% during the third quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners now owns 253,743 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $59,122,000 after buying an additional 28,799 shares during the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 4.2% during the third quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 96,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $22,505,000 after buying an additional 3,935 shares during the last quarter. Vestcor Inc lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 375,539 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $87,501,000 after purchasing an additional 34,414 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 5th Street Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 32.9% in the 3rd quarter. 5th Street Advisors LLC now owns 15,100 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,518,000 after purchasing an additional 3,736 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. The trade was a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total value of $7,950,786.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $87,377,116.59. The trade was a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 187,021 shares of company stock valued at $41,760,140 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Maxim Group raised their price objective on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $202.33 to $167.88 in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $234.31.

Apple Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $210.14 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $169.11 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The stock has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.36, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $215.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $229.19.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Apple’s 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.