Bender Robert & Associates Sells 7,593 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Bender Robert & Associates trimmed its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 291,005 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 7,593 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 16.0% of Bender Robert & Associates’ holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Bender Robert & Associates’ holdings in Apple were worth $74,099,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ryan Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC increased its position in Apple by 1,800.0% in the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. Nexus Investment Management ULC raised its stake in Apple by 333.3% during the 2nd quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 260 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $65,000. Finally, Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Apple by 41.0% during the 2nd quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC now owns 430 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $325.00 price target on Apple in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, January 12th. CLSA increased their target price on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Seaport Research Partners upgraded shares of Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $281.70.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $248.04 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $288.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market cap of $3.65 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $269.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $250.07.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 in the previous year, the company posted $1.64 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 10th were given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s payout ratio is 13.92%.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 3,752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider owned 15,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,095,030.54. This represents a 19.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.