Essex Investment Management Co. LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Posted by Defense World Staff on May 17th, 2023

Essex Investment Management Co. LLC lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 104,629 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,717 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 2.1% of Essex Investment Management Co. LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $13,594,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cassia Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 24.3% during the 4th quarter. Cassia Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,009 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $651,000 after acquiring an additional 979 shares during the period. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $3,148,000. Factory Mutual Insurance Co. grew its position in shares of Apple by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Factory Mutual Insurance Co. now owns 2,340,129 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $304,053,000 after purchasing an additional 115,929 shares in the last quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter valued at $563,000. Finally, Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 105,200 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,072,000 after purchasing an additional 4,402 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 187,730 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.76, for a total transaction of $29,991,744.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,816 shares in the company, valued at $78,253,004.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 187,730 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.76, for a total value of $29,991,744.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,253,004.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 56,072 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.17, for a total transaction of $9,261,412.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,052 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $541,766,188.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 439,529 shares of company stock worth $71,703,657 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Apple from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 5th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Apple from $170.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 2nd. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. National Bank Financial cut their target price on shares of Apple to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Apple from $175.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.29.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $172.07 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $163.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $150.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.29. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $124.17 and a 12-month high of $176.15.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 4th. The iPhone maker reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $94.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.84 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.49% and a return on equity of 165.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 4th that authorizes the company to repurchase $90.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 18th. Investors of record on Monday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.30%.

About Apple

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Apple, Inc engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and other varieties of related services. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific. The Americas segment includes North and South America.