TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Increases Stock Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,513,518 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 14,646 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 2.6% of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $411,435,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AAPL. Overbrook Management Corp grew its holdings in Apple by 57.4% during the 4th quarter. Overbrook Management Corp now owns 104,648 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $28,449,000 after acquiring an additional 38,174 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its holdings in Apple by 48.4% during the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 1,426,605 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $363,256,000 after acquiring an additional 465,393 shares during the last quarter. Tufton Capital Management grew its holdings in Apple by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tufton Capital Management now owns 100,130 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $25,496,000 after acquiring an additional 4,157 shares during the last quarter. Montis Financial LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Montis Financial LLC now owns 77,919 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $19,841,000 after acquiring an additional 10,640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Apple by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 7,044,697 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,915,172,000 after acquiring an additional 214,215 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on AAPL. Scotiabank set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, February 2nd. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, May 1st. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective (up from $305.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $253.00 price objective (up from $248.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $308.74.

Key Apple News

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s post-earnings rally continues after the company posted record quarterly revenue and EPS, boosted its dividend, and authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback. Analysts say the results support further upside and have raised price targets. Apple Stock Hits All-Time High as Post-Earnings Rally Continues
• Positive Sentiment: Evercore ISI lifted its price target on Apple to $365 and said a bull-case scenario could reach $500, citing compounding growth from Services and Apple’s ability to keep expanding free cash flow. Evercore ISI Hikes Apple Price Target to $365
• Positive Sentiment: Investor sentiment is being helped by reports that iPhone demand remains strong globally, plus Soros Fund Management reportedly boosted its Apple position during the quarter. George Soros’s fund buys Berkshire Hathaway stock — now that Buffett is gone
• Positive Sentiment: Apple reportedly cut iPhone 17 prices in China ahead of the 618 shopping festival, which could help support unit sales in a key market. Apple Cuts iPhone 17 Prices in China
• Neutral Sentiment: OpenAI is considering legal action over its strained ChatGPT partnership with Apple, which adds uncertainty around Apple’s AI strategy and could weigh on sentiment if the dispute escalates. OpenAI explores legal options against Apple
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that Anthropic’s Mythos AI found vulnerabilities in Apple’s macOS/iOS are a reminder of ongoing security scrutiny, but the news is more reputational than fundamentally financial for now. Anthropic’s Mythos Helped Find Bugs in Apple’s Desktop Operating System

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock opened at $300.23 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $193.46 and a 1 year high of $303.20. The company has a market cap of $4.41 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.30, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50-day moving average is $265.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $267.48.

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 11th. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.06%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 30,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.35, for a total transaction of $7,661,010.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,810 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,934,433.50. This represents a 17.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 64,949 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $254.23, for a total transaction of $16,511,984.27. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 97,759 shares of company stock valued at $24,964,305. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple 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.