Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price Down 2.3% – Should You Sell?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock price fell 2.3% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $255.45 and last traded at $255.78. 54,918,795 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 1% from the average session volume of 54,638,773 shares. The stock had previously closed at $261.73.

More Apple News

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong iPhone momentum and quarter results — iPhone 17 sales and overall revenue remained robust, supporting fundamentals and cushioning the pullback. Zacks: Strong iPhone Sales
• Positive Sentiment: Legal victory removes a potential multi?hundred?million dollar liability — a U.S. jury rejected Optis Wireless’ 4G patent claims, reducing near-term litigation risk. Benzinga: Optis Verdict
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support — Sanford C. Bernstein raised its price target, reflecting confidence in Apple’s growth trajectory and giving investors a bullish reference point. Bernstein PT Raise
• Neutral Sentiment: Content and services moves — Apple acquired full rights to the hit show “Severance” and added YouTube to Vision Pro, which are strategically positive for services but unlikely to move near?term earnings materially. TechCrunch: Severance Deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Major shareholder cash flow note — Berkshire Hathaway received a large Apple dividend, underscoring Apple’s cash returns but also spotlighting Berkshire’s large position dynamics. Finbold: Berkshire Dividend
• Negative Sentiment: Siri AI upgrade delays and testing problems — reports that the Siri overhaul is running into accuracy and speed problems forced Apple to push features back, directly hitting the AI narrative investors were pricing in. CNBC: Siri Delay / Market Reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk from FTC letter over Apple News — the FTC chair urged review of Apple News curation amid accusations of political bias, adding regulatory/legal uncertainty and headline risk. NYT: FTC Letter
• Negative Sentiment: Fund flow and institutional trimming amid sector pressure — several funds reduced Apple exposure and broader “Magnificent Seven” weakness amplified the selloff, raising short?term downside pressure. Barron’s: Institutional Moves

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. KGI Securities upgraded Apple to an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, January 2nd. Argus set a $325.00 price target on shares of Apple and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Scotiabank set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $276.47 target price on shares of Apple and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.13.

Apple Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $3.76 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.97. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $266.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $255.82.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $143.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $138.25 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 159.94% and a net margin of 27.04%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 9th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 9th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.15%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Apple by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 160,643 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $43,680,000 after purchasing an additional 5,813 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 352,895 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $95,938,000 after acquiring an additional 5,996 shares during the last quarter. Security National Bank of Sioux City Iowa IA grew its position in Apple by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Security National Bank of Sioux City Iowa IA now owns 31,610 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,593,000 after acquiring an additional 367 shares in the last quarter. Cordoba Advisory Partners LLC purchased a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $1,201,000. Finally, Burton Enright Welch bought a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter worth approximately $9,536,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% 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.