Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $1.51 Billion Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,493,213 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 94,614 shares during the period. Apple makes up approximately 6.0% of Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,512,919,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,160,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,807 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,909,457,000 after purchasing an additional 3,245,281 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Apple by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,146,325 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,369,852,000 after purchasing an additional 2,474,887 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased 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 buying an additional 1,065,759 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 29,515,371 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,061,296,000 after buying an additional 485,873 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the business’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 $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 over the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on AAPL. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.25.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $228.44 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $227.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $217.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal 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 $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

About Apple

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.