394,954 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL Acquired by Dearborn Partners LLC

Key Points

• Dearborn Partners acquired 394,954 Apple shares worth approximately $114.3 million, making Apple its largest portfolio holding at about 5.3%. Institutional investors collectively own 67.73% of Apple.
• Apple’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with EPS of $2.02 and revenue of $109.42 billion, up 16.4% year over year. Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with a $340.14 price target.
• Apple faces mixed developments, including potential management restructuring and Apple Pay expansion, alongside concerns over AI competition, rising memory costs, legal liabilities and security issues. Insiders have sold 11,031 shares worth approximately $3.5 million over the past 90 days.

Dearborn Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 394,954 shares of the iPhone maker's stock, valued at approximately $114,284,000. Apple makes up about 5.3% of Dearborn Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter valued at approximately $65,950,297,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Apple in the second quarter worth $36,986,090,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Apple in the second quarter worth $30,443,242,000. Nuveen LLC lifted its position in Apple by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 75,000,920 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $20,389,750,000 after buying an additional 2,725,121 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 23.2% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 73,082,616 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $18,547,637,000 after buying an additional 13,780,080 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In related news, SVP Jennifer Newstead sold 2,399 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.06, for a total value of $815,803.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 44,391 shares in the company, valued at $15,095,603.46. The trade was a 5.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 11,031 shares of company stock worth $3,535,759 over the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: CEO John Ternus is reportedly considering a leaner, engineering-led structure that could eliminate layers of middle management, accelerate product launches and make Apple more experimental. Investors may view the changes as a response to concerns about slower innovation, particularly in artificial intelligence. Apple CEO overhaul report
• Positive Sentiment: Apple Pay is reportedly launching in a key market, potentially expanding transaction volume and services revenue. Separately, Apple remains a major customer for TSMC’s advanced 2-nanometer chips, supporting future device performance and product differentiation. Apple Pay launch report
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple’s large buyback program remains a relative strength among the Magnificent Seven, although the immediate effect is financial support rather than a new growth catalyst. Apple and Nvidia buybacks
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America warned that Meta’s Muse could change how consumers search, shop and initiate payments. Even if users continue buying iPhones, AI agents could divert discovery and referral activity away from Apple’s ecosystem, putting pressure on services growth and Apple’s AI strategy. Apple faces threat from Meta Muse
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Ternus may plan layoffs as memory-chip costs rise raise concerns about gross-margin pressure and slower near-term earnings growth. Apple has already indicated that higher memory expenses could reduce profit per device.
• Negative Sentiment: Apple also faces legal and operational overhangs, including a $5.7 billion patent verdict, a revived UK consumer lawsuit involving Amazon marketplace sales, and an emergency iOS security update addressing a flaw that could enable arbitrary code execution. Apple patent verdict

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $329.40 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.00. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $243.42 and a one year high of $345.34. The company's 50-day moving average is $321.83 and its 200 day moving average is $298.67.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $109.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $109.04 billion. Apple had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 135.46%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.57 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Investors of record on Monday, August 10th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Evercore set a $380.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 18th. CICC Research boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $310.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Barclays restated an "underweight" rating and issued a $245.00 price objective (down from $253.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings cut Apple from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Finally, China Renaissance downgraded Apple from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $340.14.

Apple Profile

Apple Inc is a technology company that designs, develops and markets consumer electronics, software and digital services. Its best-known products include the iPhone smartphone, Mac personal computers, iPad tablets, Apple Watch, AirPods and other accessories. The company also develops operating systems and software platforms, including iOS, macOS, iPadOS, watchOS and visionOS.

Apple's services business includes the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+ and iCloud.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.