Insider Selling: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) COO Sells 59,730 Shares of Stock

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $111,148,695.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL stock traded down $1.11 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $225.67. The stock had a trading volume of 33,924,167 shares, compared to its average volume of 61,400,199. The company has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.23. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $222.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $203.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.26 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.55%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. KeyCorp reissued a “hold” rating and set a $247.61 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $230.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $186.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.76.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Apple by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,677,190,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,360 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Apple by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,531,834,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067,587 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Apple by 5.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,160,183,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,807 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Company 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.