Shikiar Asset Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• Shikiar Asset Management trimmed its Apple stake by 0.9% in Q4, selling 2,439 shares and ending the quarter with 273,764 shares worth $74.43 million — Apple represents about 18.5% of the firm's holdings and is its largest position.
• Apple posted a quarter-beating EPS of $2.84 (vs. $2.67) and revenue of $143.76 billion (vs. $138.25 billion), and analysts hold a consensus "Moderate Buy" rating with a $303.06 target price.
• Corporate insiders sold 96,485 shares (~$24.6 million) in the last quarter (including CEO Tim Cook and SVP Deirdre O'Brien under 10b5-1 plans), while investors monitor leadership change and AI/competitor (Qualcomm/OpenAI) developments that are weighing on sentiment.

Shikiar Asset Management Inc. trimmed its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 273,764 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 2,439 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 18.5% of Shikiar Asset Management Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its largest position. Shikiar Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Apple were worth $74,425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Isthmus Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.4% during the third quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 97,177 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 5,808 shares during the period. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 110.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC now owns 135 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the period. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1,800.0% in the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $65,000. Finally, 49 Wealth Management LLC grew its position 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 buying an additional 40,543 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Scotiabank set a $330.00 target price on Apple in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays increased their price target on Apple from $239.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Raymond James Financial reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, January 2nd. Finally, KGI Securities upgraded Apple to an "outperform" rating and set a $306.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $303.06.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $267.50 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $260.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $264.76. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $193.25 and a 52 week high of $288.62. The stock has a market cap of $3.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $2.67 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $143.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $138.25 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 159.94% and a net margin of 27.04%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 8.52 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Apple's payout ratio is presently 13.15%.

Key Stories Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company guidance and margin outlook remain constructive — Wall Street previews show Apple expecting ~13%–16% revenue growth and healthy gross margins for fiscal Q2, which supports the case for another beat when results arrive. Should You Buy, Sell, or Hold AAPL Stock Before Q2 Earnings?
• Positive Sentiment: iPhone momentum and supply-chain moves are boosting market share — reports note Apple claimed the top global smartphone spot in the March quarter, providing revenue upside and evidence the hardware cycle isn’t dead. Apple is defying a global smartphone slump
• Neutral Sentiment: Leadership change is front‑and‑center — John Ternus will become CEO in September; investors are parsing his product-first background and focus on services/AI as both an opportunity and a source of near-term uncertainty. Execution under new leadership will matter for sentiment but is a longer-term story. John Ternus, Apple’s new CEO, inherits a rebounding China business—and some messy headaches
• Neutral Sentiment: Big Tech earnings week and AI monetization themes raise expectations — analysts expect AI to drive cloud/ad/product revenue; that raises the bar for Apple to show credible AI product/monetization progress. Big Tech faces key earnings test on AI spending and cloud growth
• Negative Sentiment: Competitor moves (Qualcomm + OpenAI) spooked investors — reports that OpenAI is working with Qualcomm/MediaTek on AI-first smartphone chips lifted Qualcomm and raised fears Apple could lose an edge if it doesn’t move faster on on‑device AI. That rotation into chipmakers pressured AAPL sentiment today. Could This New AI Smartphone Compete With Apple? Qualcomm Shares Rise
• Negative Sentiment: Mounting narrative that Apple is lagging on AI execution — commentary and analyst pieces arguing Apple needs an AI breakthrough (and could be slow to integrate third‑party innovations) are feeding investor caution ahead of earnings. Apple Is Falling Behind in AI. Will a New CEO Revive Apple Stock?

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 64,949 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,280,418 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $833,980,668.14. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 30,002 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.35, for a total value of $7,661,010.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,810 shares in the company, valued at $34,934,433.50. This trade 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. Insiders have sold 96,485 shares of company stock valued at $24,594,845 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

About Apple

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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