Paul R. Ried Financial Group LLC Has $7.89 Million Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Paul R. Ried Financial Group LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 14.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 38,444 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 6,460 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 4.8% of Paul R. Ried Financial Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Paul R. Ried Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $7,888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,400,790,809 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $311,157,662,000 after acquiring an additional 5,005,297 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 1.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 354,749,794 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $72,506,336,000 after purchasing an additional 4,942,638 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its position in Apple by 573,627.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $39,065,374,000 after purchasing an additional 205,656,808 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,918,365,000 after buying an additional 20,079,472 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 14.3% during 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 buying an additional 13,137,968 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 9th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, October 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $203.07 to $246.99 in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, HSBC set a $220.00 price objective on Apple and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $280.09.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $278.78 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.32, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $266.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $234.26. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $288.62.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.11. Apple had a return on equity of 164.05% and a net margin of 26.92%.The company had revenue of $102.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.64 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.92%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total transaction of $11,071,116.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at $35,181,866.93. This trade represents a 23.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 3,752 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 15,098 shares in the company, valued at $4,095,030.54. This represents a 19.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 228,052 shares of company stock valued at $58,604,588 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.