Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Raises Stock Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. increased its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 354,218 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,191 shares during the quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in Apple were worth $90,183,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Meitav Investment House Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 81,162 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $20,665,000 after purchasing an additional 11,001 shares during the last quarter. Compass Ion Advisors LLC increased its position in Apple by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Compass Ion Advisors LLC now owns 24,509 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,241,000 after buying an additional 960 shares in the last quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 2.0% in the third quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 60,586 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $15,427,000 after buying an additional 1,199 shares during the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its holdings in Apple by 1.5% in the third quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 725,203 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $184,658,000 after acquiring an additional 10,712 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dupree Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 3.2% during the third quarter. Dupree Financial Group LLC now owns 19,427 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,947,000 after acquiring an additional 609 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results and continued iPhone strength, which underpins revenue and margin resilience. Here’s Why Apple’s Stock Dropped 5% Today
• Positive Sentiment: Bernstein raised its price target and bullish analyst notes highlight Apple’s AI roadmap and services upside, offering a longer-term constructive view. Sanford C. Bernstein Raises Apple Price Target to $340.00
• Positive Sentiment: Apple bought full rights to the hit show “Severance” and will produce future seasons in-house — a strategic push for Apple TV+ that can boost content control and margins long term. Apple acquires all rights to Severance, will produce future seasons in-house
• Neutral Sentiment: Vision Pro added YouTube, which improves platform utility, but VR demand is reported to be cooling — a mixed signal for device adoption and services monetization. Apple’s Vision Pro Gets YouTube, but VR Demand Keeps Sliding
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple reports say Apple’s major Siri AI upgrade has run into testing problems and will be delayed, undermining near-term AI momentum and stoking investor concern about execution. Apple has worst day since April as company faces FTC scrutiny, Siri delay reports
• Negative Sentiment: The FTC has publicly raised concerns about alleged bias in Apple News and asked CEO Tim Cook to review curation policies, adding regulatory risk and political headlines that can pressure shares. US FTC airs concerns over allegations that Apple suppresses right-wing content on Apple News
• Negative Sentiment: Wider market AI fears and reports that investors are marking down Apple’s valuation led to an estimated ~$200B market-cap hit as funds rotate away from megacap AI exposure. Apple sees $200 billion market-cap wipeout as stock slides on AI fears

Apple Stock Down 5.0%

Shares of AAPL opened at $261.73 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.09, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.09. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $288.62. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $267.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $255.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The iPhone maker reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.67 by $0.17. Apple had a return on equity of 159.94% and a net margin of 27.04%.The company had revenue of $143.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $138.25 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group set a $276.47 price objective on shares of Apple and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. KGI Securities upgraded Apple to an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Scotiabank set a $330.00 price target on Apple in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.13.

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.