Northwest Bank & Trust Co Boosts Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Northwest Bank & Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.1% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 91,256 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises 16.2% of Northwest Bank & Trust Co’s holdings, making the stock its largest position. Northwest Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Apple were worth $21,263,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Hoese & Co LLP boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $206,000. Benchmark Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $208,000. Finally, SMH Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $209,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Melius Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Moffett Nathanson reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.25.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $234.93 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $228.71 and a 200-day moving average of $219.12. The company has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.24. 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 one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $237.49.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.