Ballast Inc. Trims Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Ballast Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 56,860 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,236 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 3.8% of Ballast Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $13,248,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Apple by 127.4% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 75,479 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $12,943,000 after purchasing an additional 42,282 shares during the period. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Apple by 15.7% during the 1st quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 150,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $25,809,000 after acquiring an additional 20,430 shares during the period. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 1.3% during the first quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. now owns 89,259 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $15,306,000 after acquiring an additional 1,139 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Apple by 30.4% in the first quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 2,297,008 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $393,891,000 after purchasing an additional 535,917 shares during the period. Finally, Magnolia Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Apple by 255.2% in the first quarter. Magnolia Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,387 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,798,000 after purchasing an additional 11,774 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Evercore ISI reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $236.78.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,309,126.60. This trade represents a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $247.77 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 trillion, a P/E ratio of 40.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $248.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $230.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $222.26.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

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.