Amalgamated Bank Acquires 95,961 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Amalgamated Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,201,193 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 95,961 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 6.1% of Amalgamated Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Apple were worth $745,878,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AAPL. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $219,829,700,000 after acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Apple by 5.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,160,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,807 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Apple by 6.7% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,909,457,000 after acquiring an additional 3,245,281 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Apple by 3.2% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 34,619,614 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $7,291,583,000 after acquiring an additional 1,065,759 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its holdings in Apple by 14.0% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 27,882,996 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,496,738,000 after acquiring an additional 3,416,922 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $242.70 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The business has a 50 day moving average of $239.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $229.66. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The company has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.92, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Moffett Nathanson reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $188.00 price objective (down from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $237.64.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.