Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC reduced its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 251,980 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 4,443 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up about 4.2% of Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $48,514,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. boosted its stake in Apple by 5.5% during the third quarter. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. now owns 11,464 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,963,000 after acquiring an additional 598 shares in the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 13.6% during the third quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 172,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $29,589,000 after acquiring an additional 20,737 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 1.7% during the third quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,236,000 after acquiring an additional 872 shares in the last quarter. Tsfg LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 2.2% during the third quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 50,943 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,722,000 after acquiring an additional 1,091 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in Apple by 0.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 578,897,858 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $112,288,818,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,084 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $168.45 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.07. The company has a market capitalization of $2.60 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.78 and a 52-week high of $199.62. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $177.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $182.34.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $119.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.99 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 156.04%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.88 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 12th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 136,572 shares in the company, valued at $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares in the company, valued at $23,068,376.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 253,915 shares of company stock worth $44,202,868 over the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AAPL shares. UBS Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their target price on shares of Apple from $189.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $208.00 to $225.00 in a report on Thursday, January 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.23.

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.