Summit Financial LLC Trims Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• Summit Financial LLC trimmed its Apple stake by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, selling 11,798 shares and ending with 531,978 shares valued at about $144.6 million. Apple remains its fourth-largest holding and makes up roughly 2.1% of the portfolio.
• Apple continues to attract significant institutional interest, with 67.73% of shares owned by institutions, even as some funds made mixed changes to their positions during the quarter.
• The article highlights a generally constructive outlook for Apple: the company beat recent earnings and revenue estimates, raised its dividend, and received mostly Buy or Hold analyst ratings with an average price target of $314.59.

Summit Financial LLC reduced its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 531,978 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 11,798 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 2.1% of Summit Financial LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Summit Financial LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $144,624,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. First National Bank of Hutchinson grew its stake in shares of Apple by 24.6% during the fourth quarter. First National Bank of Hutchinson now owns 35,319 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $8,845,000 after buying an additional 6,982 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 54,085 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $13,544,000 after buying an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 14.8% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 537,314 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $134,554,000 after purchasing an additional 69,207 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 66,857 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $16,742,000 after purchasing an additional 2,695 shares during the period. Finally, Highview Capital Management LLC DE boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 50,264 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $12,587,000 after purchasing an additional 1,155 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s Services business posted record revenue in the fiscal second quarter, supported by ecosystem growth, AI-related updates, and its huge installed device base. Apple Continues to Expand Services Business: What's the Path Ahead?
• Positive Sentiment: Several commentators said Apple still has strong fundamentals, including a solid balance sheet, loyal customer base, and products investors continue to love, which supports the long-term bull case. Jim Cramer on Apple: “It Still Has Products We All Love”
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts at Erste Group Bank raised their earnings estimates for Apple, signaling expectations for steady profit growth over the next two fiscal years. Apple earnings estimate update
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple’s WWDC announcements showed a clearer AI roadmap, including next-generation Siri features and device software updates, but the market appears to be waiting for stronger evidence that these changes will drive meaningful revenue growth. Apple Unveils Siri AI. Here's Why It's Not Impressing Investors
• Neutral Sentiment: Some coverage suggested Apple’s AI launch could help the stock over time, but it may take more than Siri upgrades alone to restore investor enthusiasm. Apple Just Gave Investors a Glimpse of Is AI Future at WWDC. It May Take More to Revive AAPL Stock.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are worried Apple’s AI ambitions are colliding with a memory-cost crunch, creating pricing pressure that could weigh on margins. Apple Faces a No-Win Pricing Dilemma. Should Investors Be Worried?
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple reports say the market was disappointed that Apple’s Siri AI reveal did not feel like a big enough breakthrough to justify a sharper rerating of the stock. Apple's AI News Underwhelms. Siri AI Release Concerns Persist.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 1,534 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total value of $421,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,366 shares in the company, valued at $3,675,650. This trade represents a 10.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 30,002 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.35, for a total transaction of $7,661,010.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 136,810 shares of the company's stock, 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 97,759 shares of company stock valued at $24,964,305. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $276.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Apple from $335.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $330.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, March 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $314.59.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $291.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $195.07 and a one year high of $317.40. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $285.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $272.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.09.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.06. Apple had a net margin of 27.15% and a return on equity of 146.69%. The business had revenue of $111.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.46 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.65 earnings per share. Apple's quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 8.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th were issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. This is a boost from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 11th. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.06%.

Apple 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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