Payden & Rygel Sells 47,800 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Payden & Rygel decreased its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 48.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,100 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 47,800 shares during the period. Payden & Rygel’s holdings in Apple were worth $11,673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bull Oak Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 252.3% during the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its stake in shares of Apple by 88.9% during the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the third quarter worth approximately $110,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 34.3% during the third quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 678 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $158,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer downgraded Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and set a $253.00 price target (down previously from $256.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $211.84 to $200.75 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $238.05.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $239.36 on Thursday. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $241.17 and a 200-day moving average of $230.75. The company has a market cap of $3.60 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple 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.