WINTON GROUP Ltd Purchases 12,422 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

WINTON GROUP Ltd lifted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 86.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 26,712 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 12,422 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,481,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ryan Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1,800.0% in the first quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 333.3% in the second quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 260 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth $65,000. Finally, Elite Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the first quarter valued at $58,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AAPL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Apple from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. HSBC set a $220.00 price objective on Apple and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, November 9th. Argus set a $325.00 target price on Apple and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Loop Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 price target (up previously from $315.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $282.51.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.81, for a total transaction of $33,375,798.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $842,412,558.95. This trade represents a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,199 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.39, for a total transaction of $1,038,790.61. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 8,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,168,373.35. This trade represents a 32.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 228,052 shares of company stock valued at $58,604,588 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Stock Down 0.3%

Apple stock opened at $278.03 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $267.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $236.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market cap of $4.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.10. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $288.62.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $102.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.65 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 164.05% and a net margin of 26.92%.Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.64 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 13.92%.

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.