Curbstone Financial Management Corp Sells 3,238 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Curbstone Financial Management Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 69,067 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 3,238 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 3.4% of Curbstone Financial Management Corp's investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Curbstone Financial Management Corp's holdings in Apple were worth $16,093,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Verus Financial Partners Inc. grew its holdings in Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $3,566,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory raised its stake in shares of Apple by 3.8% in the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $287,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 1.7% in the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.41% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Melius Research restated a "buy" rating and issued a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Moffett Nathanson reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. KeyCorp cut shares of 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $235.25.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL traded down $1.27 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $227.01. The company had a trading volume of 14,730,447 shares, compared to its average volume of 58,315,543. The company has a market cap of $3.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.33, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $227.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $217.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.49.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple's payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares of the company's stock, valued at $42,309,126.60. This represents a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares of the company's stock, valued at $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

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.