Grey Ledge Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Grey Ledge Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 18.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 36,066 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 8,030 shares during the period. Apple makes up 2.2% of Grey Ledge Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Grey Ledge Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $9,805,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Crosspoint Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 111.1% during the fourth quarter. Crosspoint Financial LLC now owns 1,927 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,014 shares in the last quarter. Muhlenkamp & Co. Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Muhlenkamp & Co. Inc. now owns 62,841 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $17,084,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Foundry Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,459 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $940,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 112,670 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $30,630,000 after purchasing an additional 10,278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moneco Advisors LLC increased its stake in Apple by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Moneco Advisors LLC now owns 130,648 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $35,518,000 after buying an additional 11,934 shares during the period. 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: Investors are looking for WWDC to showcase a major Siri overhaul and new AI features, which could help justify a higher valuation if Apple demonstrates stronger product momentum. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s App Store generated more than $1.4 trillion in developer sales and billings last year, reinforcing the scale and stickiness of its Services ecosystem. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive on Apple’s AI roadmap and ecosystem strength, with several price-target hikes and Buy calls suggesting upside if the company executes at WWDC. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple approved Poke as the first AI agent on its Messages for Business platform, showing early AI adoption inside its messaging ecosystem, but the near-term financial impact appears limited. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that Apple may use Google cloud servers and Nvidia chips to help power Siri signal a faster AI rollout, though they also highlight Apple’s reliance on outside infrastructure. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: UBS warned that App Store growth is decelerating, which matters because App Store revenue is a key driver of Apple’s high-margin Services segment. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Apple agreed to submit India financials in a long-running antitrust case, keeping regulatory risk in focus as authorities move closer to a penalty decision. Article Title

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $253.00 target price (up from $248.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.82.

Apple Stock Up 0.3%

AAPL opened at $311.24 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $195.07 and a one year high of $316.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.07. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $280.29 and its 200-day moving average is $271.11. The company has a market capitalization of $4.57 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.09.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 146.69% and a net margin of 27.15%.The company had revenue of $111.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $109.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 11th were paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.06%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, insider Ben Borders sold 1,274 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.00, for a total transaction of $369,460.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 38,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,226,770. The trade was a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 30,002 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.35, for a total value of $7,661,010.70. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,810 shares in the company, valued at $34,934,433.50. This trade represents a 17.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 97,759 shares of company stock worth $24,964,305 over the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Apple

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.