Hardin Capital Partners LLC Trims Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Hardin Capital Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 31.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,657 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,673 shares during the quarter. Hardin Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $760,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on AAPL shares. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Barclays upped their target price on Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley set a $240.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Apple in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $244.03.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $30,508,538.40. This represents a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Down 0.6%

Apple stock opened at $254.43 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $226.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $212.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.64 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The company’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. Analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

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.