Solitude Financial Services Sells 25,126 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Solitude Financial Services lowered its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 64.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 13,757 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 25,126 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 1.1% of Solitude Financial Services’ holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Solitude Financial Services’ holdings in Apple were worth $2,359,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lawson Kroeker Investment Management Inc. NE lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 15.5% in the first quarter. Lawson Kroeker Investment Management Inc. NE now owns 20,494 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,514,000 after acquiring an additional 2,750 shares during the period. Professional Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 11.6% during the 1st quarter. Professional Advisory Services Inc. now owns 80,718 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $13,842,000 after purchasing an additional 8,376 shares during the last quarter. Rainey & Randall Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Rainey & Randall Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,546,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the period. Essex Private Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 3.2% during the first quarter. Essex Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,007 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,030,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the period. Finally, Cassia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Apple by 22.6% during the first quarter. Cassia Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,389 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,096,000 after buying an additional 1,178 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Apple from $205.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Piper Sandler Companies lowered Apple to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $220.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.05.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock traded down $0.59 during trading on Friday, hitting $169.30. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 44,717,137 shares, compared to its average volume of 53,363,952. The business has a fifty day moving average of $173.04 and a 200-day moving average of $181.79. The company has a market cap of $2.61 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $199.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $119.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.99 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.88 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 12th were given a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 14.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 366,271 shares of company stock worth $63,653,887 over the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.