5. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 184
Short % of Shares Outstanding: 0.80%
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the company behind the iPhone, is one of the best blue chip stocks to invest in. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) also offers services such as iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple Music, and Apple TV+.
In the FQ3 2024, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) logged $85.8 billion in quarterly revenue, up by 5% year-over-year. Of this, the iPhone reported revenue worth $39.3 billion and Mac revenue was $7 billion, up by 2% from a year ago. Apple’s economic moat lies in its consistent financial performance. Over the past 10 years, the company has grown its revenues and net income by 8% and 10%, respectively.
In the fiscal third quarter of 2024, the company launched Apple Intelligence, a personal intelligence system backed by AI. Apple Intelligence is integrated into all new iPhone, iPad, and Mac models. With pre-orders for the iPhone 16 opening on September 16, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is expected to report strong financial results for the rest of 2024.
Analysts are bullish on AAPL and their 12-month median price target of $250 points to a 12% upside from current levels. Overall, AAPL was held by 184 hedge funds in the second quarter of 2024, with total stakes worth $124.18 billion. Berkshire Hathaway is the top shareholder of the company with a position worth $84.25 billion.
Baron Funds said the following about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second-quarter 2024 investor letter:
“This quarter we re-initiated a position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), a leading technology company known for its innovative consumer electronics products like the iPhone, MacBook, iPad, and Apple Watch. Apple is a leader across its categories and geographies, with a growing installed base that now exceeds 2 billion devices globally. The company’s attached services – including the App Store, iCloud, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Pay – provide a higher margin, recurring revenue stream that both enhances the value proposition for its hardware products and improves the financial profile. Apple now has well over 1 billion subscribers paying for these services, more than double the number it had just 4 years ago. The increasing services mix has led to healthy operating margin improvement, providing more free cash flow for Apple to reinvest in the business and to distribute to shareholders. Throughout its 48-year history, Apple has successfully navigated and capitalized on major technological shifts, from PCs to mobile to cloud computing. We believe the company’s leading brand and device ecosystem position it to do equally well in the AI age, and this was the driver of our decision to re-invest. “Apple Intelligence” – the AI strategy unveiled at Apple’s recent Worldwide Developer Conference – leverages on[1]device AI and integrations with tools like ChatGPT to enhance user experiences across its ecosystem. The AI suite enables users to create new images, summarize and generate text, and use Siri to perform actions across their mobile applications, all while maintaining user privacy and security. We think Apple Intelligence can drive accelerated product upgrade cycles and higher demand for Apple services. The combination of growth re-acceleration, increasing services contribution, and thoughtful capital allocation should continue driving long-term shareholder value.”
