Provident Investment Management Inc. Sells 5,790 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Provident Investment Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 66.1% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,966 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 5,790 shares during the period. Provident Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $608,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,415,932,804 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $290,506,933,000 after buying an additional 15,141,995 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Apple by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 601,249,995 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $123,358,461,000 after acquiring an additional 5,224,229 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 354,749,794 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $72,506,336,000 after purchasing an additional 4,942,638 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in Apple by 573,627.2% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $39,065,374,000 after purchasing an additional 205,656,808 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter valued at about $38,942,255,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 3,752 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.23, for a total transaction of $1,017,654.96. Following the transaction, the insider owned 15,098 shares in the company, valued at $4,095,030.54. The trade was a 19.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.81, for a total transaction of $33,375,798.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $842,412,558.95. This represents a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 228,052 shares of company stock valued at $58,604,588. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, December 8th. DZ Bank raised shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 price target (up previously from $315.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $325.00 price objective on Apple in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $282.51.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $274.11 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.05 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $268.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $237.81. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $288.62.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $102.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $101.65 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 164.05% and a net margin of 26.92%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.64 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 10th were paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s payout ratio is 13.92%.

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.