Cadence Bank Lowers Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Cadence Bank lowered its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 207,429 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 950 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 3.3% of Cadence Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Cadence Bank’s holdings in Apple were worth $48,331,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after acquiring an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 6.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,121,656,000 after purchasing an additional 5,893,741 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after purchasing an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 1.9% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 58,615,053 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,657,308,000 after purchasing an additional 1,112,033 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Apple by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,160,183,000 after buying an additional 2,785,807 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. KeyCorp restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Moffett Nathanson reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $188.00 target price (down previously from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $242.52.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $232.80 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $260.10. The company’s 50-day moving average is $241.58 and its 200 day moving average is $230.89.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.