Fiera Capital Corp Cuts Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Fiera Capital Corp cut its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 13.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 31,046 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 4,650 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp’s holdings in Apple were worth $6,539,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Verus Financial Partners Inc. grew its stake in Apple by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,566,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Brown Financial Advisory lifted its holdings in Apple by 3.8% during the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $287,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% during the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $111,148,695.84. This trade represents a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This trade represents a 35.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 404,040 shares of company stock valued at $91,062,512 in the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $225.00 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.40 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $227.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $215.96. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Melius Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.51.

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.