Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC Has $41.86 Million Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC cut its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 179,658 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 873 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 3.2% of Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $41,860,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Lantz Financial LLC increased its stake in Apple by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,361 shares in the last quarter. BlueSky Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Apple by 42.1% during the 2nd quarter. BlueSky Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,516 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,794,000 after purchasing an additional 2,521 shares in the last quarter. Mcdonald Partners LLC increased its stake in Apple by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Mcdonald Partners LLC now owns 77,458 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $16,314,000 after purchasing an additional 2,959 shares in the last quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 29,262 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,163,000 after purchasing an additional 878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Divergent Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in Apple during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $317,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Apple Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $236.85 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $240.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $230.10. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The company has a market capitalization of $3.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays increased their target price on Apple to $184.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Wedbush increased their target price on Apple from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Loop Capital decreased their price target on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $239.85.

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.