Andina Capital Management LLC Decreases Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Andina Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 10.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,264 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 268 shares during the quarter. Andina Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $528,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Argyle Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 4.6% during the third quarter. Argyle Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,745 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,106,000 after buying an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC now owns 65,496 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $15,261,000 after acquiring an additional 729 shares during the period. PBMares Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 0.5% during the third quarter. PBMares Wealth Management LLC now owns 42,296 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,855,000 after buying an additional 214 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.2% during the third quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 468,522 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $109,166,000 after purchasing an additional 5,632 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Wealth Management Inc raised its position in shares of Apple by 224.4% during the 3rd quarter. Legacy Wealth Management Inc now owns 3,247 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $757,000 after buying an additional 2,246 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Moffett Nathanson lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. New Street Research reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Two investment 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.47.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $252.20 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $260.10. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 41.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $237.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $227.89.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate 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 issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.