Santori & Peters Inc. Sells 687 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Santori & Peters Inc. decreased its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,958 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 687 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 0.8% of Santori & Peters Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Santori & Peters Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,087,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bull Oak Capital LLC boosted its position in Apple by 252.3% in the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 88.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Cordant Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 34.3% during the 3rd quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 678 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $158,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Apple during the 2nd quarter worth $206,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $258.20 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 42.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $258.21. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $235.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $226.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Apple to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.78.

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.