Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd. Sells 285 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd. reduced its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 39,137 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 285 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 3.0% of Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Ayalon Insurance Comp Ltd.’s holdings in Apple were worth $9,801,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. O Connor Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 3,578 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $896,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 0.5% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Apple by 1.3% during the third quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $813,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 0.4% during the third quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 12,221 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,848,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Latitude Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 17,236 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,016,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. UBS Group boosted their target price on Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Apple to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Apple to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 20th. Maxim Group lifted their target price on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $243.88.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $247.04 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $240.26 and its 200 day moving average is $233.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market cap of $3.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.21, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued 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 0.40%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple 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.