Riverbridge Partners LLC Sells 157 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Riverbridge Partners LLC lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,375 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 157 shares during the quarter. Riverbridge Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $6,642,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC now owns 13,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,260,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Salus Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 3.9% in the first quarter. Salus Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,310 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $291,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Sharpepoint LLC raised its stake in Apple by 3.5% in the first quarter. Sharpepoint LLC now owns 1,523 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $322,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. Redwood Financial Network Corp raised its stake in Apple by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 8,720 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,184,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC raised its stake in Apple by 1.3% in the first quarter. Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC now owns 4,016 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $892,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on AAPL. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Apple from $223.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $240.00 price objective (up previously from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets restated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $205.82 to $205.16 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Melius Research set a $290.00 price objective on Apple and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $247.49.

Apple Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $256.48 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a market cap of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.09. The business’s fifty day moving average is $234.84 and its 200 day moving average is $215.25.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were issued 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 dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.78%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 47,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.79, for a total transaction of $12,101,228.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,005,982.82. This trade represents a 20.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total value of $11,071,116.07. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,181,866.93. This represents a 23.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 254,922 shares of company stock valued at $64,320,190 in the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is 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.