D.B. Root & Company LLC Has $10.45 Million Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

D.B. Root & Company LLC reduced its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,735 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,736 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 3.3% of D.B. Root & Company LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $10,451,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 5.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.6% during 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 period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Apple from $275.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their price target on Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Redburn Partners set a $230.00 price objective on Apple in a report on Friday, January 31st. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on Apple to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Four research 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $243.22.

Apple Stock Down 3.4 %

Apple stock opened at $209.68 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $235.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $233.83. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.08 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.28, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.