CHICAGO TRUST Co NA Trims Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

CHICAGO TRUST Co NA trimmed its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 127,039 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,194 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 4.5% of CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s holdings in Apple were worth $21,785,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lane & Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 7.0% during the first quarter. Lane & Associates LLC now owns 19,017 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,261,000 after purchasing an additional 1,246 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 0.6% during the first quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC now owns 63,704 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,924,000 after purchasing an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Game Plan Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the first quarter. Game Plan Financial Advisors LLC now owns 45,260 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,761,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Steph & Co. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the first quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 12,645 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,168,000 after purchasing an additional 458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westend Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the first quarter worth $222,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Maxim Group boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $178.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, DZ Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $215.71.

Apple Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $210.62 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $220.20. The firm has a market cap of $3.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $192.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $185.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The business had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.52 EPS. Apple’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 346,270 shares of company stock valued at $60,880,196 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.