Check Capital Management Inc. CA Trims Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Check Capital Management Inc. CA cut its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,582 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,808 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises approximately 0.2% of Check Capital Management Inc. CA’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Check Capital Management Inc. CA’s holdings in Apple were worth $7,359,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BluePointe Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Apple by 2.6% during the third quarter. BluePointe Capital Management LLC now owns 13,733 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,200,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. Black Diamond Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 4.2% in the third quarter. Black Diamond Financial LLC now owns 29,956 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,980,000 after buying an additional 1,194 shares in the last quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 10.4% in the third quarter. First Business Financial Services Inc. now owns 58,144 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,548,000 after buying an additional 5,458 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Apple by 7.6% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,874,982 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $902,764,000 after buying an additional 274,461 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intellectus Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 21.6% in the third quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 25,166 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,864,000 after buying an additional 4,470 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Apple Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $223.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $260.10. The company has a market cap of $3.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $230.77.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Maxim Group raised their price objective on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $238.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

About Apple

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.