Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC Lowers Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 24.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 253,441 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 82,947 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 8.0% of Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Sloy Dahl & Holst LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $63,467,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. O Connor Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 3,578 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $896,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.3% during the third quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $813,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 0.4% during the third quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 12,221 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,848,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hanseatic Management Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 3,775 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $945,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on AAPL shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $262.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $245.52.

Apple Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $223.89 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $230.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $233.36. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.08 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued 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 return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

Apple Company 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.