Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI Sells 26,260 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI trimmed its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 3.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 723,422 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 26,260 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 8.8% of Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI's portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI's holdings in Apple were worth $160,694,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,868,648,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Apple by 25,934.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $133,425,490,000 after buying an additional 59,835,676 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $349,532,608,000 after buying an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Apple by 23,555.4% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $5,272,653,000 after buying an additional 20,966,232 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Apple by 13.3% in 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AAPL. Jefferies Financial Group raised Apple from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $170.62 to $188.32 in a research report on Tuesday, July 1st. Loop Capital lowered their price target on Apple from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, June 13th. Finally, Barclays set a $173.00 price objective on shares of Apple and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $235.27.

Apple Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $211.16 on Friday. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $203.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $217.41. The company has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 167.24% and a net margin of 24.30%. Apple's revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.53 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. This is a positive change from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.20%.

Apple announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase 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 purchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 4,569 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 15,533 shares in the company, valued at $3,233,815.27. The trade was a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company 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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AAPL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.