Dodds Wealth LLC Lowers Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Dodds Wealth LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,903 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 113 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 0.8% of Dodds Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Dodds Wealth LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $3,184,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Apple by 5.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,160,183,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,807 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,909,457,000 after buying an additional 3,245,281 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 3.2% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 34,619,614 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $7,291,583,000 after acquiring an additional 1,065,759 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its stake in Apple by 13.4% in the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 20,008,650 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $4,214,222,000 after acquiring an additional 2,359,409 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745 over the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AAPL. Evercore ISI reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Apple to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Maxim Group upped their target price on shares of Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.47.

Apple Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $252.20 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $237.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $227.89. The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 41.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. 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 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid 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 dividend yield of 0.40%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

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.