Diversified Trust Co Grows Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Diversified Trust Co lifted its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 11.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 605,036 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 62,907 shares during the period. Apple accounts for approximately 3.6% of Diversified Trust Co’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Diversified Trust Co’s holdings in Apple were worth $140,974,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Apple during the first quarter valued at approximately $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP grew its holdings in Apple by 6.7% in the second quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $175,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Apple in the second quarter worth $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Apple in the second quarter worth $208,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.25.

Apple Stock Down 0.2 %

AAPL opened at $228.44 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $237.49. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $227.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $217.47. 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 stock 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 (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. The trade was a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 over the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Company 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.