Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC Trims Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC trimmed its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,007 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 350 shares during the quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,866,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Apple by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $813,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. lifted its position 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. Lowery Thomas LLC lifted its position in Apple by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Latitude Advisors LLC lifted its position in Apple by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 17,236 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,016,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $228.01 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $241.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $230.86. The company has a market capitalization of $3.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.19, a PEG ratio of 2.36 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.33 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AAPL. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Apple from $280.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Maxim Group upped their price target on shares of Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Loop Capital lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.52.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 $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 owned by insiders.

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.