Apple Inc. $AAPL Stock Position Cut by Cook Wealth LLC

Cook Wealth LLC cut its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 8.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 26,256 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,540 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 2.7% of Cook Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Cook Wealth LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,601,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Curi RMB Capital LLC raised its position in Apple by 25.1% during the first quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC now owns 380,576 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,537,000 after acquiring an additional 76,244 shares during the period. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC raised its position in Apple by 1.6% during the first quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 148,710 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $33,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,357 shares during the period. Belmont Capital LLC raised its position in Apple by 48.3% during the first quarter. Belmont Capital LLC now owns 459,358 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $102,037,000 after acquiring an additional 149,593 shares during the period. Banque Transatlantique SA raised its position in Apple by 260.8% during the first quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 4,508,384 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $925,467,000 after acquiring an additional 3,258,726 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in Apple by 6.1% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 28,191,897 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,262,266,000 after acquiring an additional 1,613,031 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. Melius Research set a $290.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $240.00 target price (up from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $240.80.

Apple Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $234.07 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.21 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day moving average of $221.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $212.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced 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. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The business had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at $30,508,538.40. This trade represents a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.