Apple Inc. $AAPL Stake Raised by Byrne Asset Management LLC

Byrne Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,066 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,052 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 5.2% of Byrne Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Byrne Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $8,420,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Futures Ltd Liability Co. boosted its holdings in Apple by 13.2% in the 2nd quarter. Financial Futures Ltd Liability Co. now owns 3,552 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $729,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Monarch Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Apple by 4.6% in the second quarter. Monarch Capital Management Inc. now owns 66,967 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,740,000 after acquiring an additional 2,920 shares during the last quarter. American National Bank & Trust grew its position in Apple by 2.4% in the second quarter. American National Bank & Trust now owns 195,482 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $40,107,000 after acquiring an additional 4,543 shares during the period. Riverwater Partners LLC increased its stake in Apple by 17.9% during the second quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 5,404 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,109,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Highland Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Apple by 2.2% during the third quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC now owns 397,834 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $101,301,000 after acquiring an additional 8,446 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs urges buying the dip ahead of Apple’s Jan. 29 earnings, citing expected robust iPhone sales — a near-term analyst push that can drive short-term inflows. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat argues Apple’s recent sell-off may be overdone and highlights extreme technical oversold signals plus strong fundamentals and buyback support — this framing can attract value buyers ahead of earnings. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s AI roadmap (Siri chatbot/Campos integration and reports of an AI wearable pin) remains a growth narrative investors are rewarding; new AI features could lift services and hardware ASPs over time. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Leadership signal — Apple broadened hardware chief John Ternus’s remit to include design work, underlining succession planning and operational continuity (a governance/continuity positive for long-term holders). Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Supply-chain/localization update: Pegatron (Apple supplier) expects its first U.S. plant to be completed by end-March with trial production to follow — supports resilience and potential tariff/production flexibility. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Evercore ISI reaffirmed an Outperform on AAPL ahead of earnings, adding to institutional buy-side conviction that could underpin the stock into results. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: ETF concentration note — large passive funds (e.g., iShares OEF) hold elevated AAPL weightings; that increases index-driven flows but also concentration risk for funds. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Long-term performance pieces and retrospectives (e.g., what $1k in AAPL looks like today) provide sentiment/context but are unlikely to move the stock near-term. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal risk: Apple asked an Indian court to block the antitrust regulator from seeking global financial records in an app-store probe — the investigation itself is a headline regulatory risk that could weigh on sentiment until resolved. Read More.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 3,752 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.23, for a total value of $1,017,654.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 15,098 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,095,030.54. The trade was a 19.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Seaport Research Partners upgraded shares of Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $330.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $325.00 target price on Apple in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 price target (up from $305.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $281.70.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $248.04 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $269.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $250.07. The stock has a market cap of $3.65 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.20, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.09. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $288.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.11. Apple had a net margin of 26.92% and a return on equity of 164.05%. The company had revenue of $102.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.64 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.92%.

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.