Searle & CO. Cuts Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Searle & CO. trimmed its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 139,507 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 60 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 8.1% of Searle & CO.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Searle & CO.’s holdings in Apple were worth $32,505,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the third quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC now owns 69,824 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,269,000 after purchasing an additional 2,565 shares during the period. Coston McIsaac & Partners lifted its holdings in Apple by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Coston McIsaac & Partners now owns 61,888 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $14,419,000 after buying an additional 2,040 shares in the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in Apple by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 31,547 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $7,350,000 after buying an additional 805 shares during the period. Rebalance LLC grew its stake in Apple by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rebalance LLC now owns 10,923 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hartford Investment Management Co. increased its position in shares of Apple by 3.6% during the third quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co. now owns 956,855 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $222,947,000 after acquiring an additional 33,596 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at $42,309,126.60. This trade represents a 24.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 quarter, insiders sold 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Apple to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Melius Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.78.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $254.49 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 41.86, 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 $255.00. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $234.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $225.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company 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 was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

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.