Cypress Wealth Services LLC Trims Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Cypress Wealth Services LLC lowered its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 132,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,145 shares during the period. Apple comprises 6.4% of Cypress Wealth Services LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Cypress Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $25,555,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 5.5% during the third quarter. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. now owns 11,464 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,963,000 after buying an additional 598 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 13.6% during the third quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 172,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $29,589,000 after purchasing an additional 20,737 shares during the last quarter. Headinvest LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 1.7% during the third quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,236,000 after purchasing an additional 872 shares during the last quarter. Tsfg LLC grew its position in Apple by 2.2% in the third quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 50,943 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $8,722,000 after purchasing an additional 1,091 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in Apple by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 578,897,858 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $112,288,818,000 after buying an additional 2,616,084 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on AAPL. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $189.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $189.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Apple from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Apple from $160.00 to $158.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.27.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $173.31 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $181.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $182.73. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $155.98 and a twelve month high of $199.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.68 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $119.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.99 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 156.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.88 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 12th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Apple’s payout ratio is 14.95%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total value of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $802,392,181.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Company 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.