5 Best Cash App Stocks To Buy Now

3. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 131

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is the tech giant behind iPhones and Mac computers. Over the past few years, it has forayed into many new business avenues to benefit from its large size and loyal brand following. It launched digital payment app called Apple Pay in 2014, which today dominates the US mobile payment market with a nearly 44% share. In the United Kingdom as well, six out of ten people used Apple Pay for point-of-sale (POS) transactions in 2021.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives on May 20 kept an ‘Outperform’ rating on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares, along with a $200 price target. Ives called Apple a compelling stock to hold and ride out the market storm. As of May 27, the company shares have gained 20.41% in the last 12 months.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) ranks among the most widely held stocks, with 131 hedge funds reporting ownership of stakes in the company at the close of the first quarter. This is down from 134 hedge funds in the preceding quarter.

For Q1 2022, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported earnings per share of $1.52, exceeding estimates by $0.09. The company’s revenue for the quarter was $97.3 billion, outperforming analysts’ forecasts by $3.3 billion.

ClearBridge Investments mentioned Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q4 2021 investor letter. Here’s what the fund said:

“Despite these mixed emerging growth results, the ClearBridge Global Growth Strategy outperformed the benchmark due to resilience among our secular and structural growth holdings. The bulk of these contributions came from U.S. mega-cap growth stocks Apple and Microsoft which continued to uniquely act both offensively and defensively as they have through most of the pandemic.”