11 Best Beginner Stocks To Invest In Now

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4. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 158

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the best beginner stocks to invest in right now. The company behind the iPhone also sells a range of digital and entertainment products including iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple Music, and Apple TV+. The company beat its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings expectations by reporting $94.9 billion in revenue which was up by 6% year-over-year. Of this, its product revenue accounted for nearly $70 billion and its services segment generated $24.9 billion. Its business performance brought in almost $27 billion in operating cash flow, making it possible for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to return more than $29 billion to its shareholders.

During the quarter, the company not only released its new product line-up but made significant advances in Apple Intelligence. Keeping the momentum in check, on October 30, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) launched new chips, M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max, built to boost efficiency and performance. Not only is the chip faster than previous versions but it also has a greater memory bandwidth. In addition to that, the chip is built to support two external displays, separate from a built-in display. On the same day, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced that the new MacBook Pro now comes with the powerful M4 chip and is built to seamlessly power Apple Intelligence.

The company not only has a solid ecosystem with a loyal customer base, but it is also innovating its offerings to enhance the customer experience and attract new ones.

Columbia Contrarian Core Fund stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:

“Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) – Despite the stock falling after announcing earnings in late May, Apple regained ground toward the end of the quarter, fueled by the company’s long-awaited AI announcement at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WDC). At the conference, the company showcased some of its new AI features powered by Apple Intelligence that would be coming to Apple products and also annonced a partnership with ChatGPT. Investors greatly welcomed the announcement of Apple’s AI strategy and the stock surged, passing Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company (although this hallmark wouldn’t last). Beta testing of these new features will be coming later this summer, but the initial promise and excitement looks to be a potential catalyst for an upgrade cycle, as the company looks to persuade users who have had the same smartphone for years to consider an upgrade.”

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