Beck Bode LLC Sells 825 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Beck Bode LLC lessened its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 10.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,006 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 825 shares during the period. Beck Bode LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,556,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Life Planning Partners Inc acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Elite Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the first quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Conquis Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $63,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter worth about $65,000. Finally, Pillar Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter worth about $82,000. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on AAPL. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. HSBC set a $220.00 target price on Apple and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $240.80.

Apple Trading Up 1.4%

AAPL opened at $230.03 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The company has a fifty day moving average of $221.08 and a 200-day moving average of $212.48. The stock has a market cap of $3.41 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.11.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.40 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,508,538.40. This trade represents a 20.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.