Luca Maestri Sells 53,194 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total transaction of $9,262,139.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $172.69 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. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $162.80 and a twelve month high of $199.62. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $176.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $182.32. The firm has a market cap of $2.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.90, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.95%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the subject of several research reports. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Redburn Partners lowered shares of Apple to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Apple from $223.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.08.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Atlantic Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Wyrmwood Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 69.0% in the fourth quarter. Wyrmwood Management LLC now owns 169 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. A.P. Gilfoyle & Co. L.P. acquired a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Gilfoyle & Co LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 118.0% during the fourth quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC now owns 218 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 16,252.3% during the first quarter. Summit Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,992,420 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 6,949,659 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.