EP Wealth Advisors LLC Takes $907.72 Million Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,136,978 shares of the iPhone maker's stock, valued at approximately $907,716,000. Apple makes up 3.5% of EP Wealth Advisors LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. M1 Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth $21,504,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Apple during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,975,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Apple during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $161,000. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $5,768,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $669,458,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, SVP Jennifer Newstead sold 1,438 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.19, for a total value of $474,813.22. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 32,914 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,867,873.66. The trade was a 4.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 8,632 shares of company stock valued at $2,719,955 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Moffett Nathanson reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $304.00 price target (up from $270.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Sunday, September 13th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Apple from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Daiwa Securities Group raised their price target on shares of Apple from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. One research 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $340.14.

Trending Headlines about 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 opened at $339.75 on Wednesday. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $243.42 and a 52-week high of $345.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.00. The business's 50 day moving average price is $321.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $295.97. The firm has a market cap 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.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $109.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $109.04 billion. Apple had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 135.46%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.57 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 10th were issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.39%.

Apple Profile

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AAPL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report).

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.