Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Sold by Summit X LLC

Summit X LLC lessened its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 111,116 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 3,259 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 6.2% of Summit X LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Summit X LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $27,825,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in 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. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Apple by 23,555.4% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $5,272,653,000 after acquiring an additional 20,966,232 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised 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 worth $77,542,863,000 after acquiring an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in Apple by 5.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $84,779,231,000 after acquiring an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its position in Apple by 25,285.2% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 9,628,864 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $2,411,260,000 after acquiring an additional 9,590,933 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Apple from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Apple from an "underweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $235.80.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total transaction of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,533 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares of the company's stock, valued at $733,637,976.75. This represents a 3.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Apple Trading Down 0.4%

NASDAQ AAPL traded down $0.73 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $201.36. The company's stock had a trading volume of 46,619,795 shares, compared to its average volume of 56,066,213. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $205.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $226.26. The stock has a market cap of $3.01 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.53 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This is a positive change from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.20%.

Apple announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.