Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Crescent Sterling Ltd.’s 2nd Largest Position

Crescent Sterling Ltd. trimmed its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 24,311 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 363 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up about 5.4% of Crescent Sterling Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Crescent Sterling Ltd.’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,665,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Apple by 127.4% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 75,479 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $12,943,000 after purchasing an additional 42,282 shares in the last quarter. Summit Rock Advisors LP purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 1st quarter worth approximately $56,532,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the first quarter valued at $7,307,000. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP grew its stake in Apple by 39.6% in the 1st quarter. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP now owns 40,428 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,933,000 after acquiring an additional 11,477 shares during the period. Finally, Berkshire Money Management Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 27.4% during the first quarter. Berkshire Money Management Inc. now owns 26,643 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,569,000 after buying an additional 5,735 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, December 2nd. KeyCorp cut Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, October 25th. New Street Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Apple to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.68.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $242.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $230.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $221.05. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $244.63.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict 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 dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $111,148,695.84. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.