Gruss & Co. LLC Sells 4,500 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Gruss & Co. LLC cut its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 54.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,700 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 4,500 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 6.8% of Gruss & Co. LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Gruss & Co. LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $862,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth about $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its stake in Apple by 88.9% during the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Hoese & Co LLP raised its holdings in Apple by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $175,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Apple in the second quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the second quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $111,148,695.84. The trade was a 10.87 % 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, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $242.84 on Monday. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $244.63. The company has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.94, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $230.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $221.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on AAPL shares. Melius Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. KeyCorp downgraded Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, New Street Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.68.

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.