Lazari Capital Management Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Lazari Capital Management Inc. cut its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 147,748 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,711 shares during the period. Apple makes up approximately 14.7% of Lazari Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Lazari Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $34,425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth about $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in shares of Apple by 88.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. Cordant Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 34.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 678 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $158,000 after buying an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Hoese & Co LLP boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Apple during the second quarter worth about $206,000. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $249.79 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $254.28. The stock has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 41.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $234.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $225.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is 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.