Green Alpha Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Green Alpha Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 331 shares during the quarter. Green Alpha Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Apple by 10.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after acquiring an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Apple by 6.5% in 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 buying an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position 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 buying an additional 5,893,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Apple to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, December 2nd. KeyCorp restated an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Argus raised Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $211.84 to $200.75 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $242.52.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $245.83 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.02, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $240.52 and a 200-day moving average of $232.29. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction 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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.