Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Position Trimmed by Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP

Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP lessened its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 387,610 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 4,842 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 3.6% of Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP’s holdings in Apple were worth $90,313,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vestor Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 9.9% in the third quarter. Vestor Capital LLC now owns 534,795 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $124,607,000 after buying an additional 48,327 shares in the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 43,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,089,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Old North State Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 99.2% during the third quarter. Old North State Wealth Management LLC now owns 27,050 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,309,000 after acquiring an additional 13,472 shares during the last quarter. Ground Swell Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 168.1% in the third quarter. Ground Swell Capital LLC now owns 8,479 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,976,000 after purchasing an additional 5,316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Donaldson Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 0.9% during the third quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 555,463 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $129,423,000 after acquiring an additional 4,749 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple 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 transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the topic of several recent 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. Barclays decreased their price target on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp lowered shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.64.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $242.21 on Wednesday. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $239.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $229.57. The company has a market cap of $3.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

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.