American Trust Investment Advisors LLC Sells 644 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

American Trust Investment Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 45,483 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 644 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 4.2% of American Trust Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. American Trust Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $10,103,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Amundi raised its stake in Apple by 27.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 68,190,569 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,870,795,000 after buying an additional 14,651,321 shares in the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 7.8% during the first quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 60,611 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $13,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,389 shares in the last quarter. 5th Street Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 27.4% during the first quarter. 5th Street Advisors LLC now owns 15,038 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,340,000 after purchasing an additional 3,238 shares in the last quarter. Promethium Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 2.0% during the first quarter. Promethium Advisors LLC now owns 56,322 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $12,511,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 5.4% during the first quarter. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 44,784 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,948,000 after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on AAPL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Apple from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $266.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their target price on Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $240.00 target price on Apple and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $240.80.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $234.07 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average of $221.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $212.39. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The company has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.52, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.11.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.78%.

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.