Eagle Ridge Investment Management Trims Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Eagle Ridge Investment Management lowered its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,520 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 965 shares during the quarter. Eagle Ridge Investment Management’s holdings in Apple were worth $12,401,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its stake in shares of Apple by 21.1% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 3,380,064 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $787,631,000 after acquiring an additional 588,427 shares during the period. Verum Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Verum Partners LLC now owns 24,199 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,638,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. boosted its holdings in Apple by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 254,357 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $59,265,000 after purchasing an additional 21,569 shares in the last quarter. Terra Nova Asset Management LLC increased its position in Apple by 100.2% during the 3rd quarter. Terra Nova Asset Management LLC now owns 14,148 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,296,000 after purchasing an additional 7,081 shares during the period. Finally, Leisure Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Apple by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Leisure Capital Management now owns 81,242 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $18,929,000 after buying an additional 716 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Loop Capital cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Jefferies Financial Group restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Apple from $275.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $245.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $733,637,976.75. The trade was a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total value of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. This trade represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 182,451 shares of company stock valued at $40,818,720. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $188.38 on Monday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.08 and a one year high of $260.10. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $229.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $233.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. 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 issued its earnings results 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

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.