Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Sold by Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc.

Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 75,388 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,907 shares during the quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $17,565,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Lantz Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 8.6% during the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,361 shares during the period. LPF Advisors LLC grew its position in Apple by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. LPF Advisors LLC now owns 2,355 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC increased its stake in Apple by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 71,138 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $14,983,000 after buying an additional 1,039 shares during the period. Retirement Planning Group LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 11.9% during the 2nd quarter. Retirement Planning Group LLC now owns 102,149 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $21,515,000 after buying an additional 10,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hurlow Wealth Management Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Hurlow Wealth Management Group Inc. now owns 19,618 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,132,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % 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 dated 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 directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Down 2.6 %

Apple stock opened at $243.85 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.69 trillion, a P/E ratio of 40.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $238.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $228.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on AAPL. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $236.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Wedbush raised their target price on Apple from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.47.

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.