Apple Inc. $AAPL Shares Sold by Clarius Group LLC

Clarius Group LLC reduced its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 149,766 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,916 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises approximately 1.8% of Clarius Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $30,728,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,400,790,809 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $311,157,662,000 after acquiring an additional 5,005,297 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 573,627.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $39,065,374,000 after purchasing an additional 205,656,808 shares during the last quarter. 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 worth $42,918,365,000 after purchasing an additional 20,079,472 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 104,706,358 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $26,220,566,000 after purchasing an additional 13,137,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1.0% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 98,099,909 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $21,790,933,000 after purchasing an additional 984,157 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. 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 target for the company. Melius Research set a $290.00 price target on Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned 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 a consensus target price of $252.47.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $262.82 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $169.21 and a one year high of $265.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The business has a fifty day moving average of $244.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $219.51. The company has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.09.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.78%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 47,125 shares of Apple 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 owned 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,005,982.82. The trade was a 20.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,199 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.39, for a total value of $1,038,790.61. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 8,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,168,373.35. This trade represents a 32.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 259,121 shares of company stock worth $65,358,981. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.