Eldred Rock Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Eldred Rock Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,152 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $268,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the first quarter worth $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.7% during the second quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter worth $208,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Maxim Group raised their price objective on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group upped their target price on Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.25.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was 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 directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Up 0.3 %

AAPL stock opened at $229.00 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $227.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $217.40. The company has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.66, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $237.49.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid 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 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.