Apple Inc. $AAPL Stake Raised by Cypress Wealth Services LLC

Cypress Wealth Services LLC increased its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 23.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 168,039 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 31,883 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 6.3% of Cypress Wealth Services LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Cypress Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $45,683,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Eastern Bank lifted its position in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 1,085,599 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $295,131,000 after buying an additional 4,223 shares in the last quarter. Randall & Associates Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Apple by 68.8% in the fourth quarter. Randall & Associates Wealth Management now owns 2,880 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $783,000 after buying an additional 1,174 shares in the last quarter. Auctus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $11,695,000. Fluent Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 20.6% in the fourth quarter. Fluent Financial LLC now owns 3,460 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $941,000 after buying an additional 591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cypress Financial Planning LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. Cypress Financial Planning LLC now owns 10,953 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,988,000 after buying an additional 2,095 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on AAPL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Apple from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 30th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Apple from $267.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued 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, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $301.23.

Key Headlines Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple joined Anthropic, Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia in Project Glasswing, a security-focused AI collaboration—this underscores Apple’s participation in enterprise-grade AI/security initiatives and supports its strategy of privacy-integrated AI features. Anthropic Teams With Apple, Microsoft And Nvidia To Test Latest Cybersecurity Tech
• Positive Sentiment: Supply-chain evidence of an AI/hardware cycle is benefiting Apple’s ecosystem: Foxconn’s strong revenue tied to AI demand and reports of elevated Mac Mini orders for on-device AI support point to durable hardware demand beyond any single product. Foxconn Revenue Surges 30% Thanks To AI Boom
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s MacBook Neo and continued strength in iPhone 17/Mac Mini sales provide alternative growth levers (ecosystem expansion, cheaper device top-of-funnel and high‑margin services), which help cushion the stock against hardware-specific setbacks. Apple’s stock could surge 20%, and the MacBook Neo could be a key catalyst
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street checks (KeyBanc, Evercore/others) note improving demand signals heading into earnings, which supports the view that near-term headline risk may be temporary versus structural revenue weakness. Is Apple Stock (AAPL) a Buy Ahead of Earnings as Demand Picks Up? KeyBanc Weighs In
• Neutral Sentiment: Bloomberg/TechCrunch reported the foldable iPhone is still targeted for a September launch—this counter-report helped intraday recovery and highlights mixed sourcing; investors must weigh Nikkei’s earlier claims vs. Bloomberg’s. Apple’s foldable iPhone is on track to launch in September, report says
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple filed to seek Supreme Court review in its long-running App Store dispute with Epic—potentially a material legal outcome over time, but an uncertain and prolonged process. Apple plans Supreme Court appeal in Epic Games App Store battle — again
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple outlets (Nikkei, Reuters, Nikkei-sourced stories) reported engineering snags in the foldable iPhone’s testing—hinge and screen durability issues that could push shipments back months. That narrative is the primary near-term reason shares are lower as it threatens a major hardware catalyst. Apple’s foldable iPhone encounters engineering snags, faces potential shipment delays
• Negative Sentiment: China’s Supreme People’s Court upheld key AI patents for Xiao‑I in a dispute with Apple—this raises regulatory and IP risk in a critical market and has already moved investor attention to potential costs or feature limitations in China. Xiao-I (AIXI) Stock Explodes Over 500% Following Major Chinese Supreme Court Victory Against Apple
• Negative Sentiment: App Store growth has slowed (UBS flagged March quarter trends), and any sustained services cooling would pressure valuation since services underpin Apple’s margin resilience. Apple Holds Steady: UBS Keeps Neutral Rating as App Store Growth Slows to 7% in March Quarter

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 30,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,810 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,934,433.50. This represents a 17.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 64,949 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were 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 represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $253.50 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $260.64 and its 200 day moving average is $263.76. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $288.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.72 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.05, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $138.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.40 EPS. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 9th were paid 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 dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.15%.

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.