Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Dearborn Partners LLC's Largest Position

Dearborn Partners LLC lessened its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 3.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 593,539 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 21,321 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 5.6% of Dearborn Partners LLC's holdings, making the stock its biggest position. Dearborn Partners LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $138,295,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Apple by 0.5% in the third quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $813,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. lifted its stake in Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $3,566,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Brown Financial Advisory raised its stake in Apple by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $287,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Core Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Apple by 1.7% during the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $625,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday. Loop Capital cut shares of Apple from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $260.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer restated a "buy" rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $238.14.

Apple Trading Down 0.1 %

Apple stock traded down $0.17 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $223.66. The stock had a trading volume of 60,167,077 shares, compared to its average volume of 55,194,383. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The company has a fifty day moving average of $241.07 and a 200 day moving average of $230.77. The firm has a market cap of $3.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. Apple's revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.