GF Fund Management CO. LTD. Purchases 19,171 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

GF Fund Management CO. LTD. boosted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,521,545 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 19,171 shares during the period. Apple makes up approximately 7.0% of GF Fund Management CO. LTD.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. GF Fund Management CO. LTD.’s holdings in Apple were worth $387,431,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 1.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,415,932,804 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $290,506,933,000 after purchasing an additional 15,141,995 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 601,249,995 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $123,358,461,000 after acquiring an additional 5,224,229 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 354,749,794 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $72,506,336,000 after acquiring an additional 4,942,638 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Apple in the second quarter worth about $38,942,255,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Apple by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,918,365,000 after purchasing an additional 20,079,472 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush raised its street-high price target to $350, arguing Apple’s AI-capable Macs and refreshed product cycle could unlock ~33% upside — a clear bullish signal for investors. Wedbush $350 target
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentators highlight Apple’s AI approach (hardware + Google Gemini partnership) as a profitability-focused alternative to the capex-heavy AI race — narrative supports margins and services monetization. AAPL Not Running AI Race Paying Off? iPhone & Google Gemini Add Tech Muscle
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s exclusive U.S. Formula 1 streaming deal for Apple TV expands services revenue and engagement — a structural positive for recurring revenue and ecosystem stickiness. Formula 1 and Apple’s big gamble
• Positive Sentiment: The MacBook Neo ($599) and entry-level iPhone broaden addressable market (students and price-sensitive buyers), which could modestly increase unit volumes and services attach over time. Apple Slashes Entry Price With MacBook Neo
• Neutral Sentiment: Smaller analyst moves: Rosenblatt nudged its PT slightly and Barclays revised targets in recent notes — these are incremental but keep the debate active on upside scope. Rosenblatt/Benzinga note
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple remains a staple in dividend-growth ETFs (e.g., DGRO), reinforcing long-term passive demand even amid short-term volatility. DGRO / Market context
• Negative Sentiment: Some outlets reported an immediate share pullback after the budget-product announcements (concerns about margin dilution and the market’s rotation away from expensive Big Tech/AI spenders). That knee-jerk selling contributed to intraday weakness. Apple stock slid after MacBook Neo
• Negative Sentiment: Wider market pressure on AI-capex-heavy names and headlines about “Big Tech” valuation compression mean Apple can be caught up in sector moves even as company-specific fundamentals remain strong. Big Tech valuation rotation
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data in some feeds showed a spike but the reports contain inconsistent values (0 shares / NaN) — treat that as likely reporting noise rather than evidence of a large coordinated short. (No reliable source link available in the feed.)

Apple Stock Down 1.1%

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $257.46 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $263.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $260.25. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $169.21 and a one year high of $288.62. The firm has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The iPhone maker reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.67 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $143.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $138.25 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 159.94% and a net margin of 27.04%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AAPL shares. KGI Securities upgraded Apple to an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $330.00 price target on Apple in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $315.00 price target (down from $330.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, November 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $297.58.

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.