Ridgewood Investments LLC Cuts Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Ridgewood Investments LLC cut its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 5.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,351 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Ridgewood Investments LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $706,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Brown Financial Advisory lifted 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 worth $287,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Core Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Apple by 1.7% during the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $949,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the second quarter. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. now owns 19,005 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,003,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Finally, Altus Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Apple by 0.6% during the second quarter. Altus Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,508 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,002,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. DA Davidson raised shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Loop Capital raised Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $170.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $190.00 to $236.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.76.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $226.80 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $3.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.23. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $222.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $204.06.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The firm had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.26 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.55%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 24,125 shares in the company, valued at $5,223,062.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,542,136.92. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total transaction of $1,121,037.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 458,619 shares of company stock worth $101,352,630 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

About Apple

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.