Eliot Finkel Investment Counsel LLC Sells 196 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Eliot Finkel Investment Counsel LLC lessened its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,840 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 196 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 1.3% of Eliot Finkel Investment Counsel LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Eliot Finkel Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,963,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. State Street Corp grew its stake in Apple by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Apple by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake 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 buying an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake 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 buying an additional 5,893,741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Apple by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 91,568,390 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $21,335,435,000 after buying an additional 1,742,087 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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 value 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 the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 187,021 shares of company stock worth $41,760,140 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $198.53 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $208.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $227.33.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.53 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to buyback $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 12th. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 16.20%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $170.62 price objective (up from $167.88) on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $197.00 to $173.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wedbush lowered shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $235.80.

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.