Investment firm BlackRock increases stake in Apple stock, now owns 6.1% of shares

The world's largest asset management firm BlackRock has increased its holdings in Apple, with a regulatory filing revealing its total ownership in the company is now over 322 million shares, worth approximately $38.4 billion.

A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission confirms the investment firm owns 322,683,504 shares in total, which works out to be a 6.1 percent stake in Apple. The figure is up from the same time last year, as in January 2016 BlackRock owned a 5.7 percent stake in the iPhone producer.

The news of BlackRock's increased ownership in Apple has positively affected the markets, with Yahoo Finance noting the Apple stock price has risen by 0.3 percent to $120.11.

As the largest investment firm, BlackRock has considerable holdings in other major tech companies, owning at least five percent of Microsoft, Facebook, and HP. BlackRock also has a seat on the Apple board, with co-founder and current chief operating officer Susan Wagner the second woman to do so after replacing the long-serving Bill Campbell in 2014.

Earlier this week, Apple's stock price reached a 14-month high, while Morgan Stanley rated Apple as "overweight" and set a price target for the company's shares of $148. As part of the rating, Morgan Stanley's estimates for the fiscal 2017 iPhone revenue were reduced by 3 percent due to anticipated "weak demand" ahead of an iPhone "supercycle."

18 Comments

anantksundaram 18 Years · 20391 comments

About 7 years ago

sog35 said:

Thats a crapload of shares owned by one fund.

Over $35 billion. Wow.

Indeed, that's a very high proportion for a fund to own. But BlackRock has become a bigger and bigger piece of f corporate America. They own 5% or more of a number of US companies.

Also interesting to note that Susan Wagner, one of BlackRock's co-founders, is on Apple's board (she joined in 2015).*

*(Oops... I see the article refers to that fact as well!)

gatorguy 13 Years · 24627 comments

sog35 said:

Thats a crapload of shares owned by one fund.

Over $35 billion. Wow.

They reportedly control north of $5Trillion (yes that's a T) in corporate stocks.

EDIT: Here's a fairly recent article about them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/business/dealbook/at-blackrock-shaping-the-shifts-in-power.html?_r=0

schlack 11 Years · 732 comments

apple has a decent upside potential and very minimal downside while still paying 2% dividend, a good place to park a whole bunch of money.

rezwits 17 Years · 856 comments

Wow I read the NYTimes Link, 13,000 employees, just to buy/trade stocks and generate money. It's funny, their product is money...

brucemc 14 Years · 1541 comments

schlack said:

apple has a decent upside potential and very minimal downside while still paying 2% dividend, a good place to park a whole bunch of money.

Yep, although a lot of "gloom and doom" media-blog-o-sphere stories, the truth is that given Apples brand, loyalty, installed base, premium customers, services, new products, and ecosystem, they have probably one of the least risky downsides in tech