Apple Inc. $AAPL Stock Holdings Lessened by Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA

Key Points

• Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA cut its Apple stake by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, but Apple still remains its largest holding at 8.8% of portfolio value, worth about $13.17 million.
• Apple’s latest quarter was strong, with EPS of $2.01 beating estimates and revenue of $111.18 billion topping forecasts, while sales rose 16.6% year over year.
• Sentiment around the stock remains generally positive: analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus with a $305.74 average price target, and Apple also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.27 per share.

Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA decreased its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 48,450 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 3,411 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 8.8% of Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA's investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA's holdings in Apple were worth $13,172,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Isthmus Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 6.4% in the third quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 97,177 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 5,808 shares during the period. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 110.9% in the third quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC now owns 135 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 1,800.0% in the first quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at about $65,000. Finally, 49 Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. 49 Wealth Management LLC now owns 298,920 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 40,543 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s latest earnings showed record-like strength, with revenue and EPS beating estimates and iPhone sales surging, reinforcing confidence in the company’s core business and margin profile.
• Positive Sentiment: Apple is being viewed more favorably on AI and product innovation, with analysts and commentators highlighting a coming WWDC catalyst, deeper AI integration, and potential new growth from wearables, Vision products, and smart glasses.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Apple may use Intel for some chip production could be seen as strategically positive because it reduces reliance on a single supplier and may improve long-term supply-chain resilience. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s pricing power remains intact, as it reportedly raised the Mac mini’s starting price while still seeing strong demand and backorders, suggesting healthy interest in its hardware lineup.
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple will pay its quarterly dividend today, which supports the stock’s income appeal but is not likely a major near-term share-price driver.
• Negative Sentiment: Director Arthur Levinson’s $71 million stock sale may temper enthusiasm a bit, since insider selling near highs can signal management caution or profit-taking.
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage warns that Apple’s stock may be getting stretched after its run-up, and rising component costs could pressure future margins if consumer hardware pricing becomes harder to manage.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Moffett Nathanson boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $241.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Barclays reiterated an "underweight" rating and set a $253.00 price target (up from $248.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $400.00 price target (up from $350.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $268.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $305.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 1,534 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total transaction of $421,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 13,366 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,675,650. The trade was a 10.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 64,949 shares of the business's 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,280,418 shares in the company, valued at $833,980,668.14. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 96,485 shares of company stock valued at $24,594,845 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Apple Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $292.68 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $193.46 and a one year high of $294.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $262.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $266.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.39, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.06.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.06. Apple had a net margin of 27.15% and a return on equity of 146.69%. The business had revenue of $111.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. Apple's quarterly revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 14th. Investors of record on Monday, May 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 11th. This is an increase from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Apple's payout ratio is presently 12.58%.

Apple 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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