Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Sells $24,184,616.40 in Stock

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $733,637,976.75. The trade was a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $188.38 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.90, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.08 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company’s 50 day moving average is $229.45 and its 200 day moving average is $233.07.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.87%.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 10.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,999,145,000 after buying an additional 6,307,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Apple in the 4th quarter worth $46,868,648,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Raymond James lifted their target price on Apple to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Redburn Partners set a $230.00 price objective on Apple in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Loop Capital lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $245.26.

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.