Cornerstone Management Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Cornerstone Management Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 22.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,107 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 313 shares during the period. Cornerstone Management Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $227,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AAPL. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 573,627.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $39,065,374,000 after acquiring an additional 205,656,808 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the first quarter worth approximately $17,472,482,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Apple by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,918,365,000 after purchasing an additional 20,079,472 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Apple by 27.4% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 68,190,569 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,870,795,000 after purchasing an additional 14,651,321 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Apple by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 104,706,358 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $26,220,566,000 after purchasing an additional 13,137,968 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. CLSA raised shares of Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, October 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $325.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $203.07 to $246.99 in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $315.00 target price (up from $245.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 3,752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.23, for a total value of $1,017,654.96. Following the transaction, the insider owned 15,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,095,030.54. This represents a 19.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,199 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.39, for a total value of $1,038,790.61. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 8,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,168,373.35. The trade was a 32.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 228,052 shares of company stock valued at $58,604,588. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $271.49 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $259.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $229.36. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month high of $277.32. The stock has a market cap of $4.01 trillion, a P/E ratio of 41.20, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.09.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $102.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.65 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.64 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 10th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.92%.

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.