First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Has $119.85 Million Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. cut its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 514,384 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 10,249 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 1.8% of First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Apple were worth $119,851,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the second quarter valued at about $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its holdings in Apple by 88.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. Cordant Inc. boosted its holdings in Apple by 34.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 678 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $158,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP grew its position in shares of Apple by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $175,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $206,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.78.

Apple Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $247.96 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $250.80. 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 company has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a PE ratio of 40.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $231.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $222.83.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.