Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Purchased by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,917,646 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,877 shares during the period. Apple makes up 3.6% of Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Apple were worth $403,895,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Apple by 17.9% in the first quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 206,455 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 31,278 shares during the period. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Apple during the 1st quarter worth $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP raised its position in shares of Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $206,000. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % 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, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This trade represents a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 404,040 shares of company stock worth $91,062,512. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays dropped their target price on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.51.

Apple Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $225.00 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. The firm has a market cap of $3.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $237.49. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $227.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $215.96.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

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.