Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Decreases Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC reduced its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 92.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,286 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 256,100 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,572,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated lifted its position in shares of Apple by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 99,620 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $20,439,000 after purchasing an additional 965 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional lifted its position in shares of Apple by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 208,652 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,809,000 after purchasing an additional 18,674 shares during the last quarter. Kaydan Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Kaydan Wealth Management Inc. now owns 10,360 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,126,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. Walker Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 102.8% during the 2nd quarter. Walker Financial Services Inc. now owns 6,717 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,378,000 after acquiring an additional 3,405 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 26,087 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,352,000 after acquiring an additional 401 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Melius Research set a $290.00 price target on shares of Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $190.67 to $205.82 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $245.66.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the business’s 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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of Apple stock opened at $254.43 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $169.21 and a 52-week high of $260.10. 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $229.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $213.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.11.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly 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. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The business had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 11th were paid 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 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.