Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Sells Off Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) recently sold shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). In a filing disclosed on January 08th, the Senator disclosed that they had sold between $15,001 and $50,000 in Apple stock on December 19th.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse also recently made the following trade(s):

• Sold $15,001 – $50,000 in shares of NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) on 1/6/2025.
• Sold $15,001 – $50,000 in shares of Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) on 12/19/2024.
• Sold $1,001 – $15,000 in shares of MetLife (NYSE:MET) on 11/19/2024.
• Sold $1,001 – $15,000 in shares of Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) on 11/18/2024.
• Purchased $15,001 – $50,000 in shares of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) on 10/30/2024.
• Sold $1,001 – $15,000 in shares of Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) on 10/29/2024.
• Sold $1,001 – $15,000 in shares of Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) on 10/29/2024.
• Sold $1,001 – $15,000 in shares of Honeywell International (NASDAQ:HON) on 10/29/2024.
• Sold $1,001 – $15,000 in shares of Mastercard (NYSE:MA) on 10/29/2024.
• Sold $1,001 – $15,000 in shares of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) on 10/29/2024.

Apple Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $242.70 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $239.91 and a 200-day moving average of $229.75. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The stock has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.92, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its position in Apple by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after acquiring an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,121,656,000 after purchasing an additional 5,893,741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Apple by 20,372.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after purchasing an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, 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. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on AAPL. Moffett Nathanson reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $188.00 price objective (down from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday. Wedbush boosted their price target on Apple from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.64.

About Senator Whitehouse

Sheldon Whitehouse (Democratic Party) is a member of the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island. He assumed office on January 3, 2007. His current term ends on January 3, 2025. Whitehouse (Democratic Party) is running for re-election to the U.S. Senate to represent Rhode Island. He declared candidacy for the 2024 election. Whitehouse previously served as the Rhode Island attorney general from 1999 to 2003. Before that, he was a United States attorney from 1994 to 1998. He was nominated to the position by President Bill Clinton (D). Whitehouse was a superdelegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention from Rhode Island. He cast his vote for Hillary Clinton. As of a 2014 analysis of multiple outside rankings, Whitehouse is an average Democratic member of Congress, meaning he will vote with the Democratic Party on the majority of bills.

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.