Chapman Investment Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Chapman Investment Management LLC cut its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 39,439 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 630 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 6.7% of Chapman Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Chapman Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $9,189,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the third quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $813,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $287,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Core Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. New Street Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Maxim Group increased their price target on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.03.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $243.36 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.68 trillion, a PE ratio of 40.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $238.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $228.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company 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.