Cullen Investment Group LTD. Has $50.14 Million Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. decreased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 215,198 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 4,791 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 7.5% of Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Apple were worth $50,141,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Granite Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.7% in the second quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $60,958,000 after purchasing an additional 7,606 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.8% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,473,224,000 after purchasing an additional 126,210 shares during the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.2% in the second quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,928,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $406,099,000 after purchasing an additional 95,235 shares during the last quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 387.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,128,000 after acquiring an additional 19,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gentry Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Apple during the 2nd quarter worth about $876,000. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on AAPL. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp cut shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 25th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Two equities 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.25.

Apple Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $228.44 on Friday. 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 market cap of $3.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.49. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $227.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $217.47.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend 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.