Sage Capital Advisors llc Has $30.32 Million Stock Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Sage Capital Advisors llc decreased its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 147,766 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 4,595 shares during the period. Apple makes up approximately 7.5% of Sage Capital Advisors llc’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Sage Capital Advisors llc’s holdings in Apple were worth $30,317,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at about $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 25,934.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $133,425,490,000 after purchasing an additional 59,835,676 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Apple by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $349,532,608,000 after purchasing an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Apple by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,918,365,000 after acquiring an additional 20,079,472 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $240.00 price objective (up from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $223.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $266.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.93.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of Apple stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this link. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $238.99 on Thursday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The company has a 50-day moving average of $223.15 and a 200-day moving average of $212.36. The firm has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.11.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 EPS 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 company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.40 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were given a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.78%.

Apple Company 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.