Chesapeake Wealth Management Sells 695 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Chesapeake Wealth Management lowered its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 49,403 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 695 shares during the period. Apple makes up 3.9% of Chesapeake Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Chesapeake Wealth Management’s holdings in Apple were worth $11,511,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 0.5% during the third quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Apple by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $813,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Verus Financial Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $287,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Core Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Apple Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $229.82 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average of $240.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $230.68. 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 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were 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 of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on AAPL. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Apple from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $211.84 to $200.75 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Loop Capital cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $238.05.

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.