Meixler Investment Management Ltd. Acquires 301 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Meixler Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,768 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 301 shares during the period. Meixler Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Apple were worth $521,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Apple by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 123,534,393 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $16,889,649,000 after acquiring an additional 9,411,018 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Apple by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,995,750 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $221,753,959,000 after buying an additional 8,734,393 shares in the last quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. increased its position in Apple by 12.1% in the 2nd quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 80,467,043 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,001,469,000 after buying an additional 8,716,964 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its position in Apple by 13.1% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 71,060,708 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $12,407,910,000 after buying an additional 8,230,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verity Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Apple by 29,097.9% in the 1st quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,300,881 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $189,000 after buying an additional 5,282,726 shares in the last quarter. 57.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 20,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.72, for a total value of $3,004,144.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 31,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,685,423.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 20,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.72, for a total value of $3,004,144.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 31,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,685,423.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 176,299 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.95, for a total transaction of $27,493,829.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 110,673 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,259,454.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on AAPL shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Apple from $175.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 28th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on Apple to $167.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 1st. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Apple from $177.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 8th. Bank of America cut their price target on Apple from $160.00 to $154.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 7th. Finally, National Bank Financial cut their price target on Apple to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $166.73.

Apple Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $137.87 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $138.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $148.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $124.17 and a 1 year high of $179.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.56, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 27th. The iPhone maker reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.03. Apple had a net margin of 25.31% and a return on equity of 160.90%. The business had revenue of $90.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.24 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 7th were issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 4th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.06%.

Apple Company Profile

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Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide. It also sells various related services. In addition, 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.