NWM Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 19,040 Apple Inc. $AAPL

NWM Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 19,040 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $5,176,000. Apple makes up approximately 4.5% of NWM Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 110.9% during the 3rd quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC now owns 135 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 1,800.0% during the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter worth about $65,000. PayPay Securities Corp grew its holdings in Apple by 52.1% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 365 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, eCIO Inc. bought a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter worth about $112,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $253.00 target price (up from $248.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their target price on shares of Apple from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $330.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. One investment 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 given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $312.82.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 64,949 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.23, for a total value of $16,511,984.27. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 3,280,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $833,980,668.14. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 30,002 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.35, for a total value of $7,661,010.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 136,810 shares in the company, valued at $34,934,433.50. The trade was a 17.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 97,759 shares of company stock worth $24,964,305. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analysts reiterated bullish views on Apple ahead of WWDC, including Goldman Sachs keeping a Buy rating with a $340 target and Evercore ISI lifting its target to $365, citing Apple’s AI roadmap, ecosystem strength, and services growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Investor expectations remain high that Apple will unveil major AI updates at WWDC, especially a rebuilt Siri and deeper Apple Intelligence features, which could extend the stock’s recent rally. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports suggest Apple may expand its ecosystem with a native bill-splitting/payment feature in iOS, which could deepen user engagement and strengthen its services revenue stream. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary around Apple’s stock has been upbeat, with articles highlighting outperformance versus the S&P 500 and strong demand for iPhones and Macs ahead of the conference. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS said not to expect fireworks from WWDC and kept a Neutral rating, suggesting the event may not deliver a near-term stock catalyst if announcements disappoint. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple’s recent gains and all-time high have also prompted valuation concerns, with some analysts and commentators warning the shares may already price in a lot of good news. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Reuters reported that Apple agreed to submit India business financials in an antitrust case, keeping regulatory risk in focus and raising the possibility of penalties. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive headlines from Nvidia, Walmart, and others show mounting pressure on parts of Apple’s ecosystem, including PCs and payments, which could weigh on sentiment if rivals gain traction. Article Title

Apple Trading Down 1.6%

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $310.26 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.52, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $279.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $270.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.07. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $195.07 and a 52 week high of $316.94.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $111.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $109.46 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 146.69% and a net margin of 27.15%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

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

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.