Green Alpha Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Green Alpha Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,146 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 180 shares during the quarter. Green Alpha Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,199,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Apple during the 1st quarter valued at $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $175,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the second quarter worth $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter valued at $208,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at $24,416,137.76. The trade was a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Citigroup raised their price target on Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp cut Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.25.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $229.87 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The business’s fifty day moving average is $227.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $218.06. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $237.49.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast 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 was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

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.