DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Raises Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,884,086 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 18,996 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 4.6% of DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,487,905,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $813,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Brown Financial Advisory raised its stake in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $287,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Lowery Thomas LLC grew its stake in Apple by 0.7% in the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through 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 transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of several research reports. Moffett Nathanson lowered their target price on Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.78.

Apple Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $258.20 on Thursday. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $258.21. The business’s 50-day moving average is $235.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $226.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 42.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Apple’s payout ratio is 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.