Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc. Sells 3,600 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc. decreased its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 183,698 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 3,600 shares during the period. Apple makes up 8.0% of Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $42,802,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bull Oak Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 252.3% in the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple in the second quarter worth about $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Cordant Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple by 34.3% during the 3rd quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 678 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $158,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the period. Finally, Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Apple in the second quarter valued at about $206,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp downgraded Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, October 25th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.47.

Apple Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $252.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 41.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $237.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $227.89.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.