Atom Investors LP Decreases Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Atom Investors LP cut its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 82.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,254 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 25,427 shares during the period. Atom Investors LP’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,224,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Atreides Management LP increased its position in shares of Apple by 29.9% during the third quarter. Atreides Management LP now owns 424,965 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $99,017,000 after purchasing an additional 97,882 shares in the last quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in Apple in the 3rd quarter valued at $10,718,000. Kestra Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Apple by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 58,797 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,700,000 after buying an additional 3,784 shares during the period. Royal Capital Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Apple by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Capital Wealth Management LLC now owns 27,426 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,390,000 after buying an additional 1,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paradigm Capital Management LLC NV acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 3rd quarter worth $2,896,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $227.63 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $241.45 and a 200-day moving average of $230.97. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.13, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. As a group, analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.33 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup increased their price objective on Apple from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.52.

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.