Deirdre O’brien Sells 43,013 Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total value of $11,071,116.07. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,181,866.93. This trade represents a 23.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Deirdre O’brien also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, August 8th, Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of Apple stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20.

Apple Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of AAPL opened at $258.02 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.83 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.15, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.09. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $233.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $214.69.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.78%.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. First National Bank of Hutchinson lifted its stake in Apple by 24.6% in the 4th quarter. First National Bank of Hutchinson now owns 35,319 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,845,000 after purchasing an additional 6,982 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 54,085 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $13,544,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 537,314 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $134,554,000 after buying an additional 69,207 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 66,857 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,742,000 after buying an additional 2,695 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Highview Capital Management LLC DE grew its holdings in Apple by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 50,264 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $12,587,000 after buying an additional 1,155 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI set a $290.00 target price on Apple and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 19th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell 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 $247.49.

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.