Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd Sells 283,460 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd lessened its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 24.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 877,000 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 283,460 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 1.8% of Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd’s holdings in Apple were worth $204,341,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,121,656,000 after purchasing an additional 5,893,741 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 20,372.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Apple by 5.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,160,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,807 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 6.7% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,909,457,000 after acquiring an additional 3,245,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 34,619,614 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,291,583,000 after acquiring an additional 1,065,759 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on AAPL. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $262.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Oppenheimer downgraded Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday. 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. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $242.52.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $236.00 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $241.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $230.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a market capitalization of $3.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.82, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.87%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.