GEM Asset Management LLC Sells 158 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

GEM Asset Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 19,087 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 158 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 2.4% of GEM Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. GEM Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,231,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of AAPL. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,026,492,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 14,145.8% during the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,603,000 after acquiring an additional 7,558,826 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Apple by 158.3% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 11,532,438 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,977,582,000 after acquiring an additional 7,067,379 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 161.2% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 8,759,445 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,502,068,000 after acquiring an additional 5,405,542 shares in the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $834,368,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This represents a 35.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on AAPL. Evercore ISI reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Melius Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. KeyCorp downgraded Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays cut their price objective on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.25.

Apple Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $234.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.64, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $228.83 and its 200 day moving average is $219.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. Apple’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

About Apple

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.