Royal Fund Management LLC Sells 7,270 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Royal Fund Management LLC lessened its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,502 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 7,270 shares during the period. Apple makes up 1.0% of Royal Fund Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $8,277,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 1,800.0% in the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC boosted its position in Apple by 333.3% in the second quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 260 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $65,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 41.0% during the second quarter. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC now owns 430 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HFM Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple in the first quarter valued at approximately $99,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens set a $315.00 price target on Apple in a report on Monday, January 26th. Melius Research set a $345.00 target price on Apple in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 2nd. Argus set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.13.

Apple Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $255.78 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $266.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $255.82. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $288.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 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 released 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. The firm had revenue of $143.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $138.25 billion. Apple had a net margin of 27.04% and a return on equity of 159.94%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.40 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.15%.

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.