Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 100 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. trimmed its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,600 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,771,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the third quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $813,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. grew its stake in Apple by 0.3% during the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,566,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory increased its holdings in Apple by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $287,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Core Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Apple by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lowery Thomas LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AAPL. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. KeyCorp downgraded Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, New Street Research reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $236.78.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $255.27 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 41.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $234.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $225.91. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $255.65.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio 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.