Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) COO Jeffrey E. Williams Sells 59,162 Shares of Stock

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total transaction of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,378,155.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $172.69 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $162.80 and a one year high of $199.62. The company has a 50-day moving average of $176.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $182.32. The stock has a market cap of $2.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.90, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $119.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.99 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 156.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.88 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Investors of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Apple from $160.00 to $158.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $223.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.08.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Apple by 116,483.5% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 569,554,722 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $74,002,245,000 after acquiring an additional 569,066,184 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Apple by 14,395.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,119,470,000 after acquiring an additional 70,212,651 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Apple by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 138,461,076 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $26,657,911,000 after acquiring an additional 26,572,012 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in Apple by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 208,655,323 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $27,110,586,000 after acquiring an additional 25,926,552 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.