Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Sold by STAR Financial Bank

STAR Financial Bank lessened its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 15.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 18,524 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 3,384 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 2.9% of STAR Financial Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. STAR Financial Bank’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,316,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. lifted its position in Apple by 52.4% in the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 22,025 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,132,000 after acquiring an additional 7,574 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 2,260,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $526,696,000 after purchasing an additional 9,700 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 19.9% during the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 10,252,147 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,388,750,000 after buying an additional 1,699,474 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its holdings in Apple by 4.8% during the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 847,414 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $197,447,000 after buying an additional 38,519 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its position in Apple by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 433,946 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $101,109,000 after buying an additional 2,165 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $237.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.57 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.08, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $230.81.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. Analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, 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. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp cut shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Apple from $265.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.05.

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.