Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc. Reduces Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 9.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 151,086 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 15,200 shares during the period. Apple makes up approximately 7.6% of Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. Ramsay Stattman Vela & Price Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $38,344,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 5.3% in the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 13,748 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,489,000 after purchasing an additional 693 shares during the last quarter. Graetz Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 4.5% during the first quarter. Graetz Wealth LLC now owns 1,923 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $488,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Range Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 2.5% during the first quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 8,425 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,138,000 after buying an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. raised its position in Apple by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 51,267 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,011,000 after buying an additional 1,127 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Apple by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 22,562 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,726,000 after buying an additional 2,024 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Ford will integrate Apple Maps and Apple software into upcoming lower-cost EVs and self-driving features, expanding Apple’s automotive footprint and creating another potential platform for its services ecosystem. Ford Will Use Apple Software in New Self-Driving System
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Apple is preparing a smarter shopping assistant for the App Store and testing a more AI-driven buying experience suggest new ways to improve commerce, engagement, and monetization across its ecosystem. Apple Tests Smarter Shopping Experience
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street sentiment remains constructive in places, with Morgan Stanley reportedly raising its Apple target and several pieces arguing Apple could be an underappreciated AI beneficiary as it readies new Macs, iMacs, and other hardware built for AI demand. Apple Plans To Overhaul Computers to Meet AI Demand
• Neutral Sentiment: Samsung’s new foldables and the broader “AI hardware” race are keeping Apple in the spotlight, but the news is mostly competitive context rather than a direct near-term catalyst.
• Negative Sentiment: Apple lost a key court bid, leaving a $634 million Apple Watch blood-oxygen patent verdict in place, which keeps legal overhangs alive and could raise investor concern about additional costs or product restrictions. Apple Fails to Overturn $634 Million Masimo Verdict
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple market notes point to Apple’s valuation being rich and the stock being vulnerable to volatility into earnings, with some analysts warning that momentum may be peaking after a strong run.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their target price on Apple from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.83.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, insider Ben Borders sold 116 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.14, for a total transaction of $34,236.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 38,713 shares in the company, valued at $11,425,754.82. The trade was a 0.30% 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock opened at $321.66 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $201.50 and a 1-year high of $334.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.72 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $305.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $278.63.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $109.46 billion. Apple had a net margin of 27.15% and a return on equity of 146.69%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.65 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 8.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Investors of record on Monday, May 11th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 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.