Liberty Atlantic Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 2,666 Apple Inc. $AAPL

Liberty Atlantic Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 2,666 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $725,000. Apple makes up approximately 0.7% of Liberty Atlantic Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at about $38,942,255,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at about $17,472,482,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 20,464.8% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 27,069,029 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,553,753,000 after buying an additional 26,937,401 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,426,283,914 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $387,749,545,000 after buying an additional 26,856,752 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,918,365,000 after buying an additional 20,079,472 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AAPL. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $253.00 price objective (up from $248.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, May 1st. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $270.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, May 1st. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.31.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Ben Borders sold 1,274 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.00, for a total transaction of $369,460.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 38,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,226,770. The trade was a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 64,949 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.23, for a total value of $16,511,984.27. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,280,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $833,980,668.14. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. 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 ninety days, insiders sold 97,759 shares of company stock worth $24,964,305. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Investor optimism is building ahead of WWDC, with Apple expected to unveil key AI features that could improve Siri and strengthen its software ecosystem. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s MacBook Neo is reportedly gaining traction with new buyers, suggesting the company is still expanding its hardware appeal beyond its core customer base. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts have been lifting targets on AAPL ahead of WWDC, reflecting confidence that Apple’s AI strategy and software roadmap could reaccelerate growth. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: New Apple Wallet bill-splitting and payment-request features may help deepen engagement, but the immediate stock impact is less clear because the move is incremental rather than transformative. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple is being discussed as a potentially overvalued stock after its recent rally, which could limit upside if WWDC disappoints expectations. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Dell and Nvidia have intensified competition in PCs and laptops, pressuring Apple’s positioning in hardware categories like the MacBook Neo. Article Title

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $315.20 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.11, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.09. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $195.07 and a fifty-two week high of $315.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $276.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $270.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $111.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.46 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 146.69% and a net margin of 27.15%.The firm’s revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.65 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.