McCarthy Asset Management Inc. Reduces Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

McCarthy Asset Management Inc. reduced its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 50.9% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,228 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 15,816 shares during the period. Apple accounts for approximately 2.2% of McCarthy Asset Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. McCarthy Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $3,548,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Menlo Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Menlo Advisors LLC now owns 54,576 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $12,716,000 after buying an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 20,903 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,870,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Ashford Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Ashford Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,276 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $996,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC now owns 46,096 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,740,000 after purchasing an additional 881 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Apple from $280.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Apple from $273.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Apple from $253.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.52.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $241.53 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $240.70 and its 200 day moving average is $231.34. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.63 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.34, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was 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 owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently 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.