Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Insider Sells $369,460.00 in Stock

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) insider Ben Borders sold 1,274 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.00, for a total value of $369,460.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 38,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,226,770. This trade represents a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Apple Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $298.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.06. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $193.46 and a one year high of $300.92. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $264.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $267.25.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $111.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.46 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 146.69% and a net margin of 27.15%.Apple’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 EPS for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business 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. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 11th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.06%.

Key Headlines Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s latest quarter was a clear beat, with revenue of $111.18 billion and EPS of $2.01 topping expectations, while management also approved a fresh $100 billion buyback and raised the dividend.
• Positive Sentiment: Evercore ISI raised its price target on Apple to $365 from $330 and reiterated an Outperform rating, citing strong Services growth and long-term earnings/free-cash-flow compounding.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor enthusiasm remains elevated around Apple’s AI roadmap, with reports pointing to WWDC as a potential catalyst and broader expectations that Apple can monetize AI through devices and Services.
• Positive Sentiment: China-related headlines may also help sentiment, as Xi Jinping told U.S. CEOs including Tim Cook that China will “open wider,” easing some concerns about Apple’s supply chain and market access.
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple is reportedly exploring new AI-agent support in the App Store and additional iOS features, which could support the ecosystem but are still early-stage product rumors.
• Neutral Sentiment: Security reports about vulnerabilities found in macOS/iOS are a reminder of cyber risks, but they do not yet appear to be a material earnings issue.
• Negative Sentiment: OpenAI is reportedly considering legal action against Apple over their ChatGPT partnership, raising the risk of a public dispute around Apple’s AI strategy.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider selling and a reported Foxconn ransomware incident may slightly temper sentiment, though neither looks large enough to outweigh the bullish earnings and analyst upgrades.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AAPL. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 target price (up from $300.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Maxim Group raised shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Apple from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $308.74.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,426,283,914 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $387,749,545,000 after purchasing an additional 26,856,752 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 604,056,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $164,218,801,000 after purchasing an additional 6,555,392 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 358,032,517 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $97,031,587,000 after purchasing an additional 1,866,103 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Apple by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 230,483,035 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $62,659,118,000 after buying an additional 1,379,651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $52,266,468,000. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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.