L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Has $63.60 Million Stake in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP trimmed its Apple stake by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, but Apple still remains its largest holding at 7.0% of the portfolio, worth about $63.6 million.
• Apple continues to attract strong institutional interest, with major investors like Vanguard, State Street, Geode Capital, and Northern Trust adding to positions; institutions now own 67.73% of the company.
• Analysts remain broadly positive on Apple, with an average Moderate Buy rating and a target price of $308.74, while the company also beat recent earnings expectations and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.27 per share.

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP lessened its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 233,943 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 4,205 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises 7.0% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP's investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP's holdings in Apple were worth $63,600,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,400,790,809 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $311,157,662,000 after acquiring an additional 5,005,297 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Apple by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 601,249,995 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $123,358,461,000 after buying an additional 5,224,229 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Apple by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 354,749,794 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $72,506,336,000 after buying an additional 4,942,638 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Apple in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,942,255,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Apple by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $42,918,365,000 after buying an additional 20,079,472 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Ben Borders sold 1,274 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.00, for a total value of $369,460.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 38,713 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,226,770. This represents a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 30,002 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.35, for a total value of $7,661,010.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,810 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,934,433.50. This represents 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 97,759 shares of company stock valued at $24,964,305. Insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $375.00 target price (up from $305.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $310.00 target price (up from $300.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Maxim Group upgraded Apple from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $300.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $308.74.

Apple News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple is reportedly planning a broad set of AI features for iOS 27, including writing help, app shortcuts, and other Siri enhancements, signaling a stronger product roadmap for the next iPhone cycle.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Apple’s revamped Siri may lean on Google Gemini suggest Apple is willing to use outside AI to accelerate its assistant overhaul, which could improve competitive positioning faster than building everything in-house. Apple's Next-Gen Siri App May Lean Heavily on Google's AI
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street commentary highlighted Apple’s services business as a potential earnings engine, with some analysts seeing a path to higher EPS if the ecosystem continues to expand.
• Positive Sentiment: Hedge-fund interest also remains supportive, with Viking Global reportedly opening a fresh Apple stake worth nearly $1 billion, reinforcing institutional confidence in the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple’s upcoming WWDC is expected to center on AI integration, but it is still a preview event rather than a revenue event, so the near-term impact depends on how compelling the announcements are. Apple Reveals Dates of Tim Cook's Final WWDC as CEO
• Neutral Sentiment: Social chatter around satellite connectivity and other hardware upgrades points to continued innovation interest, but these themes are longer-term and less likely to move the stock immediately.
• Negative Sentiment: Apple is facing renewed regulatory pressure after an Indian court ordered the company to fully cooperate in an App Store antitrust probe, adding another legal overhang for investors.
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Apple is discounting iPhone 17 models in China highlight ongoing competition and margin pressure in a critical market, which could temper enthusiasm if price cuts deepen.

Apple Trading Down 0.8%

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $297.84 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $193.46 and a 12 month high of $303.20. The stock has a market cap of $4.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.06. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $266.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $267.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 11th were paid a $0.27 dividend. This is an increase from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. Apple's payout ratio is currently 13.06%.

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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