6,824 Shares in Apple Inc. $AAPL Purchased by Rakuten Securities Inc.

Key Points

• Rakuten Securities purchased 6,824 Apple shares valued at approximately $1.98 million during the second quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 67.73% of Apple’s stock.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive, with Apple carrying a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $340.14, although several firms recently downgraded the stock to “Hold.”
• Apple reported quarterly earnings of $2.02 per share on $109.42 billion in revenue, exceeding estimates, while its shares trade near their 52-week high at a valuation of roughly 39 times earnings.

Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 6,824 shares of the iPhone maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,975,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sterling Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the second quarter. Sterling Wealth Management Inc. now owns 11,579 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $3,351,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Evansbrook LLC raised its stake in Apple by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Evansbrook LLC now owns 8,095 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $2,054,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. JMG Financial Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Apple by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. JMG Financial Group Ltd. now owns 5,102 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $1,295,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Advocate Investing Services LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Advocate Investing Services LLC now owns 7,847 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $2,271,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Interactive Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Interactive Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,051 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $286,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Phillip Securities upped their target price on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, September 14th. KGI Securities downgraded shares of Apple from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $315.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Apple from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $360.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $340.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Jennifer Newstead sold 1,439 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.01, for a total transaction of $456,177.39. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 35,790 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,345,787.90. This trade represents a 3.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 8,632 shares of company stock valued at $2,719,955 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Foldable iPhone momentum: Investor enthusiasm remains high following Apple’s introduction of the approximately $1,999 iPhone Duo, which represents the company’s biggest iPhone design change in years. Early interest and strong iPhone 18 Pro preorder lead times have reinforced expectations for an upgrade cycle and potentially higher revenue. Apple Folds & Meta Muses
• Positive Sentiment: AI-focused Macs: New Mac mini and Mac Studio systems are being marketed as a lower-cost alternative to cloud data-center computing because businesses can run AI models locally without recurring per-token charges. The strategy could support Mac demand and broaden Apple’s role in enterprise AI, even as Nvidia remains dominant in large-scale infrastructure. With new Macs, Apple aims to take on Microsoft, Nvidia in a rush to lower AI costs
• Positive Sentiment: Wearables expansion: Apple is reportedly developing a screenless fitness tracker to compete with Whoop and Oura. A lower-priced, health-focused wearable could expand Apple’s addressable market and generate additional services revenue, although the product may not launch until as early as 2028. Apple Considers Screenless Fitness Tracker to Expand Wearable Lineup Beyond Smartwatches
• Positive Sentiment: Services and international growth: Apple plans to launch Apple Pay in India next month, initially with Axis Bank, while hiring in digital assets could support future payments and tokenization initiatives. These efforts add to the company’s recurring-revenue ecosystem.
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation and technical backdrop: Apple’s record run and roughly 39-times earnings multiple are attracting profit-taking concerns, but analysts continue to cite earnings beats, strong cash generation, and improving product momentum. The stock is trading near its 52-week high and close to technical breakout levels.
• Negative Sentiment: Legal and geopolitical risks: Apple is opening claims under a $250 million settlement related to alleged misleading Apple Intelligence advertising. Separately, pressure on the new CEO to reconsider Chinese chip sourcing highlights supply-chain and U.S.-China trade risks.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $339.75 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The company has a market capitalization of $4.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.08. The firm's 50-day moving average is $321.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $295.97. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $243.42 and a 12 month high of $345.34.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.57 EPS. Analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Investors of record on Monday, August 10th were given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. Apple's dividend payout ratio is presently 12.39%.

About Apple

Apple Inc is a technology company that designs, develops and markets consumer electronics, software and digital services. Its principal products include the iPhone, Mac computers, iPad tablets, Apple Watch, AirPods and other accessories. The company also develops operating systems and applications that support its hardware products.

Apple's services business includes the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, Apple News+, Apple Pay and iCloud. These services provide digital content, payments, cloud storage and subscription offerings across the company's ecosystem of devices.

Founded in 1976, Apple is headquartered in Cupertino, California, and serves consumers, businesses, educational institutions and government customers worldwide.

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