Barrett & Company Inc. Trims Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Barrett & Company Inc. lowered its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 27,322 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 3,727 shares during the period. Apple makes up 2.8% of Barrett & Company Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Barrett & Company Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $6,366,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors lifted its stake in Apple by 0.5% during the third quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 96,685 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,528,000 after purchasing an additional 490 shares during the last quarter. Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 22.5% during the third quarter. Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE now owns 171,895 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $40,052,000 after purchasing an additional 31,608 shares during the period. Sound Stewardship LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.6% during the third quarter. Sound Stewardship LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $738,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Gemmer Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Gemmer Asset Management LLC now owns 52,151 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $12,151,000 after buying an additional 9,013 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Family Investment Center Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Family Investment Center Inc. now owns 9,970 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,323,000 after buying an additional 669 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AAPL. Maxim Group raised their target price on shares of Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays cut their price target on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. KeyCorp lowered Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Apple to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two equities research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $255.59 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.04, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $237.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $227.79. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

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.