Katherine L. Adams Sells 38,822 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total transaction of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Apple Stock Performance

AAPL stock traded down $20.70 on Thursday, hitting $203.19. The company had a trading volume of 103,138,666 shares, compared to its average volume of 54,995,093. The stock has a market cap of $3.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.08 and a 12-month high of $260.10. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $230.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $233.36.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. As a group, equities research 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, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Argus upgraded shares of Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $245.26.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. O Connor Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 3,578 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $896,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the third quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $813,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC now owns 13,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,260,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Menard Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the third quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 12,221 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,848,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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.