Apple Inc. $AAPL Position Lowered by Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC

Key Points

• Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC trimmed its Apple stake by 1.5% in Q4, selling 2,531 shares and leaving it with 170,006 shares worth about $46.22 million (2.9% of the fund and its 4th largest holding).
• Major institutions moved aggressively into Apple: Norges Bank and Nuveen opened multibillion-dollar positions while Northern Trust and UBS materially increased stakes, leaving roughly 67.7% of the stock owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
• CEO Tim Cook and SVP Deirdre O’Brien sold shares under pre-arranged Rule 10b5‑1 plans, and Apple is preparing a leadership transition (Cook to Executive Chairman, John Ternus to become CEO), amid mixed analyst signals but an overall “Moderate Buy” consensus with a ~$303 average target.

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC cut its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 170,006 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 2,531 shares during the period. Apple makes up 2.9% of Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $46,218,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Apple in the second quarter worth about $38,942,255,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Apple in the first quarter worth about $17,472,482,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Apple by 20,464.8% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 27,069,029 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $5,553,753,000 after purchasing an additional 26,937,401 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Apple by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $42,918,365,000 after purchasing an additional 20,079,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Apple by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 104,706,358 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $26,220,566,000 after purchasing an additional 13,137,968 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Broad AI momentum and Magnificent Seven rally are lifting big-cap tech, giving Apple favorable sector tailwinds into earnings (supports valuation and multiple expansion). Stocks Have Soared Ahead of Big Tech Earnings. There’s Little Room for Error.
• Positive Sentiment: Apple appointed Johny Srouji as Chief Hardware Officer, consolidating hardware leadership — a move investors view as strengthening execution on chips, SoCs and device integration (positive for margin and product roadmap confidence). Apple (AAPL) Appoints Johny Srouji as Chief Hardware Officer
• Positive Sentiment: Continued focus on returning cash to shareholders (buyback capacity) improves EPS dynamics and investor sentiment versus peers. Apple will soon deliver billions more in cash to investors. Here's how it stacks up to the rest of Big Tech.
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings week & Fed meeting create a high-stakes backdrop — upside if Apple validates demand/AI roadmap, downside if expectations are too lofty. Short-term volatility likely. Wall Street Brunch: Five Of The Mag 7 Ride Into Earnings Town
• Neutral Sentiment: Leaks and reporting around a premium foldable “iPhone Ultra” keep product-cycle excitement but are speculative — could boost sentiment on product upside or disappoint if features/price miss expectations. Foldable iPhone Ultra confidential docs leak
• Negative Sentiment: Leadership transition: Tim Cook will become Executive Chairman and John Ternus (internal) will be CEO in September — continuity reduces disruption but markets fret about execution risk, China strategy and whether Ternus can deliver on AI/product bets. John Ternus, Apple’s new CEO, inherits a rebounding China business—and some messy headaches
• Negative Sentiment: Mixed analyst and insider signals — Goldman reassessing the stock ahead of earnings and QuiverQuant notes concentrated insider selling and divergent price targets, which can amplify downside if earnings disappoint. Get Ready for a New Magnificent Seven. SpaceX Can Disrupt This Industry, Too. Apple Stock (AAPL) Opinions on Incoming CEO John Ternus Strategy

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of several research reports. Moffett Nathanson raised their target price on Apple from $241.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $350.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $303.06.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 64,949 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.23, for a total transaction of $16,511,984.27. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,280,418 shares of the company's stock, valued at $833,980,668.14. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 30,002 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.35, for a total value of $7,661,010.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,810 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,934,433.50. The trade was a 17.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $271.06 on Monday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $193.25 and a twelve month high of $288.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market cap of $3.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.27, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.11. The business's 50-day moving average price is $260.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $264.67.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The iPhone maker reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.67 by $0.17. Apple had a return on equity of 159.94% and a net margin of 27.04%.The firm had revenue of $143.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $138.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.40 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 8.52 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 9th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. Apple's payout ratio is presently 13.15%.

Apple Company Profile

Apple Inc NASDAQ: AAPL is a multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, software and services. Over its history Apple has evolved from personal computers to a broad portfolio that spans mobile devices, wearables, home entertainment and digital services.

Apple's principal hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, Mac personal computers, Apple Watch wearable devices and a range of accessories such as AirPods and HomePod.

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