True North Advisors LLC Sells 19,588 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

True North Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 16.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 100,322 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 19,588 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 6.1% of True North Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. True North Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $23,375,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Verus Financial Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,566,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory grew its holdings in Apple by 3.8% during the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Core Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Apple by 1.7% during the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 0.7% in the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,602,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $949,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on AAPL shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.25.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $232.87 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.52 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.30, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.49. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $228.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $218.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.