5 Best Autonomous Vehicle Stocks to Buy for 2021

3. Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

No of HFs: 134

Total Value of HF Holdings: $127.3 Billion

The biggest tech company in the world, Apple Inc is pushing ahead with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to manufacture a passenger vehicle that could have its own advanced battery technology. Could Project Titan be the main rival of Tesla? We heard the news about Elon Musk reached out to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook for possible acquisition of Tesla’s company shares way back in 2018. This offer from Musk didn’t materialize as Tim Cook snubbed the deal. Apple’s car venture, dubbed Project Titan, has been an open secret in the automotive and technology world since its inception in 2014. The company was mentioned as one of the Top 10 Best Magic Formula Stocks to Buy Now and Top 10 Stocks Americans Searched the Most in 2020.

In an article, Qualivian Investment Partners mentioned their comments on the stock,

“Apple: From a product standpoint, iPhone sales in AAPL’s fiscal Q4 quarter (calendar Q3) missed consensus estimates as customers deferred iPhone 11 purchases in anticipation of the launch of the 5G-enabled iPhone 12 in October, however, iPad and Mac sales continued to benefit from COVID-related work/learn from home trends, with each posting the fastest top line growth rates in the last 5 years. This in combination with continued long-term strength in wearables and services revenue, more than made up for the weakness in iPhone sales, allowing AAPL to beat on the top and bottom lines when they reported the quarter in late October. While the market was somewhat disappointed in AAPL’s lack of iPhone 12 guidance for the upcoming fiscal Q1 2021 quarter, we are optimistic that the iPhone 12 will represent a strong upcoming iPhone sales cycle for AAPL, and that the continued strength in its noniPhone product and service revenue categories (which represented 47% of revenue in the quarter, the highest it has ever been) supports the stock’s rerating and its continued outperformance in the coming years.”

In a separate article, RiverPark Advisors, LCC also highlighted a few stocks and AAPL was one of them,

“Apple: AAPL shares were a top contributor as the company reported record fiscal third quarter results, with revenue up 11% to $60 billion and EPS up 18% to $2.58 – both well ahead of expectations. Revenue was driven by double-digit growth in both Products (up 10%) and Services (up 15%), as well as growth in every geographic segment.

We believe that Apple remains one of the most innovative, best positioned and most profitable companies in what are still the early innings of the mobile technology revolution. Additionally, a fall 5G launch should benefit the company, COVID has highlighted the opportunity for the Apple Watch to be an essential health monitoring device, and the company has rapidly diversified into new high growth and high margin products. AirPods, which were launched only three years ago, are on track to generate $15-$20 billion in revenue this year, 5%-8% of total company revenue. iPhones continue to represent a progressively smaller portion of total revenue (44% of the company’s third quarter revenue, down from 48% a year ago), which should help to lessen the impact of year-to-year iPhone refresh cycles.

At the same time, Services provides robust growth for the company ($13 billion, up 15% yearover-year, and 22% of revenue in the June quarter, and more than $39 billion so far in Apple’s fiscal 2020, is accretive to the company’s margins (Services gross profit grew 20% for the quarter and accounts for 39% of total company gross profit) and adds a large, recurring revenue segment to the company’s business mix. The company maintains a fortress balance sheet with $193 billion of cash, $80 billion net of debt. We expect excess cash flow of more than $60 billion per year, which has been increasingly returned to shareholders through both a growing dividend and increased share repurchases. The company also recently completed a 4 for 1 stock split that was well received by investors.”