Donoghue Forlines LLC Acquires Shares of 9,575 Apple Inc. $AAPL

Donoghue Forlines LLC bought a new position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 9,575 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $2,438,000. Apple accounts for about 0.7% of Donoghue Forlines LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. One Wealth Management Investment & Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the third quarter. One Wealth Management Investment & Advisory Services LLC now owns 48,957 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $12,466,000 after purchasing an additional 644 shares in the last quarter. Stenger Family Office LLC raised its stake in Apple by 12.6% during the third quarter. Stenger Family Office LLC now owns 95,665 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $25,716,000 after purchasing an additional 10,718 shares in the last quarter. Ridgeline Wealth Planning LLC lifted its position in Apple by 14.5% during the third quarter. Ridgeline Wealth Planning LLC now owns 2,473 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $630,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC lifted its position in Apple by 7.5% during the third quarter. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC now owns 41,045 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,451,000 after purchasing an additional 2,863 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 95,292 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $24,264,000 after buying an additional 3,036 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AAPL. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $239.00 price objective (up from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, January 30th. DZ Bank raised Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $325.00 target price on Apple in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their target price on Apple from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.13.

Apple Trading Down 2.3%

AAPL stock opened at $255.78 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $288.62. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $266.62 and its 200 day moving average is $255.51. The company has a market capitalization of $3.76 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.09. 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 earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The iPhone maker reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.67 by $0.17. Apple had a net margin of 27.04% and a return on equity of 159.94%. The business had revenue of $143.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $138.25 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.40 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th were given 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 payout ratio is 13.15%.

Key Stories Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong iPhone momentum and quarter results — iPhone 17 sales and overall revenue remained robust, supporting fundamentals and cushioning the pullback. Zacks: Strong iPhone Sales
• Positive Sentiment: Legal victory removes a potential multi‑hundred‑million dollar liability — a U.S. jury rejected Optis Wireless’ 4G patent claims, reducing near-term litigation risk. Benzinga: Optis Verdict
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support — Sanford C. Bernstein raised its price target, reflecting confidence in Apple’s growth trajectory and giving investors a bullish reference point. Bernstein PT Raise
• Neutral Sentiment: Content and services moves — Apple acquired full rights to the hit show “Severance” and added YouTube to Vision Pro, which are strategically positive for services but unlikely to move near‑term earnings materially. TechCrunch: Severance Deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Major shareholder cash flow note — Berkshire Hathaway received a large Apple dividend, underscoring Apple’s cash returns but also spotlighting Berkshire’s large position dynamics. Finbold: Berkshire Dividend
• Negative Sentiment: Siri AI upgrade delays and testing problems — reports that the Siri overhaul is running into accuracy and speed problems forced Apple to push features back, directly hitting the AI narrative investors were pricing in. CNBC: Siri Delay / Market Reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk from FTC letter over Apple News — the FTC chair urged review of Apple News curation amid accusations of political bias, adding regulatory/legal uncertainty and headline risk. NYT: FTC Letter
• Negative Sentiment: Fund flow and institutional trimming amid sector pressure — several funds reduced Apple exposure and broader “Magnificent Seven” weakness amplified the selloff, raising short‑term downside pressure. Barron’s: Institutional Moves

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.