Hall Laurie J Trustee Sells 855 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Hall Laurie J Trustee decreased its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 59,942 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 855 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up about 4.4% of Hall Laurie J Trustee’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Hall Laurie J Trustee’s holdings in Apple were worth $13,967,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in Apple during the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Hoese & Co LLP raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $206,000. Benchmark Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the second quarter worth $208,000. Finally, SMH Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Apple during the second quarter worth $209,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. This trade represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays reduced 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. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Melius Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.25.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $235.06 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $228.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $219.01. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.49. 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 $3.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share 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 quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. 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.