Cortland Associates Inc. MO Has $6.96 Million Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Cortland Associates Inc. MO cut its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,776 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 129 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 0.8% of Cortland Associates Inc. MO’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Cortland Associates Inc. MO’s holdings in Apple were worth $6,956,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd 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. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,074,372,000 after acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Apple by 6.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Apple by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,121,656,000 after purchasing an additional 5,893,741 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wedbush reissued 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 reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Apple to $236.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Argus upgraded Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $243.65.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $223.75 on Wednesday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.08 and a one year high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $231.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $233.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.52, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 15.87%.

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.