Peddock Capital Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Peddock Capital Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 108,009 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 860 shares during the period. Apple comprises 6.5% of Peddock Capital Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $27,048,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Apple by 10.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 5.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 6.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after buying an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Apple by 6.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $22,121,656,000 after buying an additional 5,893,741 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 20,372.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price target on Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Loop Capital lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Oppenheimer lowered Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $262.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $244.85.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $245.55 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $240.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $232.72. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its 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%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.