Heartland Advisors Inc. Makes New Investment in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Heartland Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,989 shares of the iPhone maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,154,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Basso Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $88,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $109,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth approximately $187,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Jennifer Newstead sold 1,439 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.01, for a total value of $456,177.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 35,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,632 shares of company stock valued at $2,719,955. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Apple News Roundup

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 Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $339.75 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $4.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.96, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50 day moving average of $321.17 and a 200-day moving average of $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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $109.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.57 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on AAPL. Piper Sandler started coverage on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, August 17th. They set an "overweight" rating on the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Apple from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Friday. China Renaissance cut shares of Apple from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Maxim Group upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $350.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $303.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $340.14.

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.

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