Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. Sells 174,280 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 22.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 619,130 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 174,280 shares during the period. Apple accounts for approximately 2.4% of Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $157,129,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.9% during the fourth 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 raised its position in Apple by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 604,056,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $164,218,801,000 after purchasing an additional 6,555,392 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Apple by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 358,032,517 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $97,031,587,000 after purchasing an additional 1,866,103 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Apple by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 230,483,035 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $62,659,118,000 after buying an additional 1,379,651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter worth $52,266,468,000. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: China approved Apple Intelligence for iPhones, clearing a major hurdle for Apple’s delayed AI rollout in its biggest international market. Reports also say Alibaba’s Qwen and Baidu models will help power the experience, which should support Apple’s AI adoption story. Alibaba and Baidu shares jump in Hong Kong on Apple AI partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Several market commentators say Apple is benefiting from a “standard oil” style strategy: keep monetizing a massive installed base through hardware, services, and selective ecosystem expansion rather than chasing capital-intensive AI infrastructure. That narrative is helping justify the stock’s record highs. Why Apple’s ‘Standard Oil’ Strategy Is Driving the Stock to All-Time Highs
• Positive Sentiment: Warren Buffett reiterated that Apple remains one of Berkshire Hathaway’s favorite holdings, easing some investor concern about the planned CEO transition from Tim Cook. Warren Buffett Just Reaffirmed Apple as One of His Favorite Stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: KeyCorp raised earnings estimates for Apple for several future periods, but kept an Underweight rating and a $250 price target, signaling improving fundamentals while still warning that valuation is rich. Apple Inc. research notes and analyst updates
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple is reportedly exploring acquisitions of chip startups to strengthen its AI server and custom silicon efforts. That could help long-term competitiveness, but the impact is still speculative. Apple chasing AI chip company deals, The Information reports
• Negative Sentiment: Some reports say Apple’s iPhone manufacturing costs are rising because of higher component prices, and that could pressure margins if Apple can’t fully offset those costs with pricing or mix improvements. Apple’s New iPhone Is Going to Cost Significantly More Than Last Year
• Negative Sentiment: Apple is also facing scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers over its China memory-chip sourcing plans, adding a political and supply-chain overhang to the AI and hardware story. AAPL’s China Memory Chip Plans Draw National Security Scrutiny

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $365.00 target price on Apple in a research note on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $276.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on Apple from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. UBS Group set a $250.00 price objective on Apple in a report on Tuesday. Finally, 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $318.43.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 1,534 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total value of $421,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 13,366 shares in the company, valued at $3,675,650. This trade represents a 10.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ben Borders sold 1,274 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.00, for a total transaction of $369,460.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 38,713 shares in the company, valued at $11,226,770. This represents a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,924 shares of company stock valued at $825,546 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Up 1.8%

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $333.26 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $201.50 and a 12-month high of $334.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 40.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $302.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $276.70.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $111.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $109.46 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 146.69% and a net margin of 27.15%.The firm’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.65 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 8.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 11th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 11th. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.06%.

About Apple

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.