Gotham Asset Management LLC Acquires 538,746 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• Gotham Asset Management boosted its Apple stake by 60.5% in Q3, buying 538,746 shares to hold 1,428,976 shares valued at about $363.86M, making AAPL its 4th-largest holding (~1.6% of the portfolio).
• Apple recently beat quarterly expectations with $2.84 EPS vs. $2.67 expected and revenue of $143.76B (up 15.7% year-over-year), and carries a market cap near $3.71T.
• Wall Street sentiment is broadly positive with a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of about $297.58 (majority of analysts rated Buy).

Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 60.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,428,976 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after purchasing an additional 538,746 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 1.6% of Gotham Asset Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Gotham Asset Management LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $363,860,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Isthmus Partners LLC boosted its position in Apple by 6.4% during the third quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 97,177 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 5,808 shares during the last quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 110.9% during the 3rd quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC now owns 135 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1,800.0% during the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $65,000. Finally, 49 Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. 49 Wealth Management LLC now owns 298,920 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 40,543 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple acquired MotionVFX, a maker of Final Cut Pro plugins and motion-graphics tools — a strategic tuck-in to bolster Final Cut Pro/creator ecosystem and subscription stickiness. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Apple unveiled the second-generation AirPods Max (H2 chip, improved ANC, Live Translation) at $549 — a premium product refresh that supports accessory revenue and services integration. Preorders and ASPs could help near-term revenue. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports suggest Apple is using aggressive pricing on some new hardware (e.g., $599 MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e) to gain share — this could pressure rivals while expanding ecosystem reach and driving volume. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst note: Robert W. Baird reiterated a bullish stance, highlighting Apple’s durable ecosystem and services growth — supportive for long-term earnings but not an immediate catalyst. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparisons to Amazon and broader AI/tech narratives are circulating — useful context for relative valuation debates but not a direct Apple-specific driver. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Nvidia’s GTC and chip/AI momentum continue to dominate headlines; indirect implications for Apple include component demand and competitive AI feature expectations. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Apple is sliding relative to peers in March and is down from recent highs — momentum and sector rotation (Nvidia leadership) are weighing on sentiment. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Apple postponed its smart home display release — a product delay that could defer revenue and push back ecosystem expansion timelines. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data reported today appears anomalous/garbled (zeros/NaN); read-through on investor positioning is unclear — treat short-interest headline with caution.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Apple from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. KGI Securities raised shares of Apple to an "outperform" rating and set a $306.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup restated a "buy" rating and set a $315.00 price objective (down from $330.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their target price on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $297.58.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $252.82 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.96, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.97. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $261.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $261.88. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $288.62.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The iPhone maker reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.67 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $143.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $138.25 billion. Apple had a net margin of 27.04% and a return on equity of 159.94%. The business's revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.40 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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