Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. Cuts Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,603 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 265 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 2.9% of Cascade Investment Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,567,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Verus Financial Partners Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Brown Financial Advisory raised its stake in Apple by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $287,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Core Wealth Management Inc. lifted 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 worth $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 0.7% in the 2nd 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. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 1.1% in the second quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $949,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,309,126.60. This represents a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This trade represents a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 404,040 shares of company stock valued at $91,062,512 over the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the subject of several research reports. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.51.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $228.02 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $227.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $217.00. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.50, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during 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%. Apple’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

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.