Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Sells 115,132 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans trimmed its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,631,428 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 115,132 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 2.7% of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' holdings in Apple were worth $1,402,665,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Custos Family Office LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Custos Family Office LLC now owns 15,429 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $3,864,000 after buying an additional 943 shares during the last quarter. Clarity Wealth Development LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,182,000. PDS Planning Inc increased its stake in Apple by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 100,647 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $25,204,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 34,802 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $8,715,000 after purchasing an additional 1,097 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mystic Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Apple by 123.4% in the 4th quarter. Mystic Asset Management Inc. now owns 113,299 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $28,372,000 after buying an additional 62,573 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $941,214. The trade was a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,533 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080 over the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on AAPL shares. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. DA Davidson raised their target price on Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $270.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Scotiabank cut shares of Apple to a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $235.80.

Apple Stock Down 0.5%

Apple stock traded down $0.94 on Friday, hitting $199.01. 70,744,759 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 56,305,347. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $203.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $225.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market cap of $2.97 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is an increase from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. Apple's dividend payout ratio is currently 16.20%.

Apple Company 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.