Here is what you missed as Apple COO Jeff Williams sold $30 million worth of stocks

Jeff Williams, Apple Inc's Chief Operating Officer, pulled off one of the most surprising stock sales in the company's history last week. He sold $30 million worth of stocks just after the shares gain 22% in the first quarter, and its significance is getting experts talking. Many deemed it opportunistic others believe it's just brilliant.

But what does the market say?

Firstly, a brief recap of how Apple Stocks AAPL has faired in previous quarters.

Apple's opening share price at beginning of the year was $130.28, and sold 111.7 million volume, with an intraday high of $130.90. January eventually closed with the share price at $144.29 which is an increase of about 10.77% within a month. 

By the end of the quarter, there was a sharp decline in the tech giant's revenue, having pulled $117.2 billion compared to $123.9 billion during this period last year, a reduction of 5% in the company's revenue was declared, a result of the disruption in the supply chain in China as at December 2022, hence the call for an improved strategy.

At the start of March 2023, stock market experts believed the usual strategy of making sales under predetermined conditions like timing and prices, made by executives and company insiders called the 10b5-1 trading plan would be adopted. 

To Ben Silverman, the VerityData Research director, the move was a surprise. Jeff Williams has what is known as vested shares in Apple Inc two large ones annually, and in the past, he usually sells them in October. But last year, Jeff didn't sell, and Ben believed it was because the stock price at the time was below the minimum, selling at $138.

The move on the other hand the move was rather smart, Apple shares are up by 22% in March 2023, and instead of sticking with previous valuations, he upscaled and held out, Opportunistic or not, it was a good move.

Jeff sold 187,730 shares at an average price of 159.9, hitting a total amount of $30,018,027 in total stock value. Now stock market experts believe they know how he thinks and the next time a vested share is being sold, they will be more prepared.

According to the trusted stock market ranking website known as Zack's Ranking of 1-5, #1 to strongly buy and #5 to strongly sell, Apple's stock currently ranks at #3 which implies to hold, with a current stock price of $158.28 today 28th March 2023, similar to Microsoft's stock also at #3, selling at $276.38.

Apple Inc has come a long way since 1980 when it presented its IPO at $22 per share, if you bought $1000 worth of it Apple stocks in 1980, it is definitely worth nothing less than a million dollars today.

Robinhood the stock trading platform currently sells Apple stocks as of the time of this article at 157.9, but according to Coincodex the stock prediction platform, AAPL is expected to hit a new all-time high of $244 by 2025.

The market hence shows that Apple stock is still a viable stock option and getting the right information can help investors build a profitable portfolio, so stay up to date with Investingport for more.