Olympiad Research LP Purchases 1,124 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Olympiad Research LP lifted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 78.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,551 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,124 shares during the period. Olympiad Research LP’s holdings in Apple were worth $594,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. 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 worth $219,829,700,000 after acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 14,145.8% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,603,000 after acquiring an additional 7,558,826 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 22,870.6% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 5,590,588 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,302,607,000 after acquiring an additional 5,566,250 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the second quarter worth $834,368,000. 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 worth $6,496,738,000 after acquiring an additional 3,416,922 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Maxim Group boosted their target price on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Moffett Nathanson restated a “sell” rating and issued a $188.00 price target (down previously from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $239.85.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $236.85 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. 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 price of $240.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $230.10. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

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.