5 Best Motley Fool Stocks To Buy Now

2. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Motley Fool Asset Management’s Stake Value: $54,062,000

Percentage of Motley Fool Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio: 5.08%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 128

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is ranked among the top five holdings of Motley Fool Asset Management and the stock is one of the best Motley Fool stocks to buy now. As of June 30, Motley Fool Asset Management’s stakes in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are valued at $54 million. The investment covers 5.08% of the fund’s 13F portfolio.

On September 29, Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett raised his price target on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to $189 from $160 and upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral. On September 30, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani maintained his buy-side Outperform rating and $190 price target on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). This October, JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee maintained his buy-side Overweight rating on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

At the close of Q2 2022, 128 hedge funds were eager on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). The total stakes of these hedge funds amounted to $143 billion in the company.

Here is what Distillate Capital Partners LLC had to say about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second-quarter 2022 investor letter:

“Apple was largest new purchase in the quarter, at a 2% weight. Apple underperformed the overall market last quarter, and given very minimal debt, this price weakness translated into a commensurate fall in its enterprise value. For stocks with higher debt levels, it takes a disproportionately bigger market cap drop to achieve the same valuation improvement and this is a key reason we avoid highly leveraged names where significant price weakness can be experienced during a revaluation process. Alongside this decline in EV for Apple, its estimated free cash flows have risen steadily throughout the year. This contrast between a falling enterprise value and rising free cash flow, which is highlighted in Figure 12, made the stock sufficiently better valued such that it entered the portfolio. While Apple’s valuation is now attractive enough to warrant inclusion in the portfolio, it still ranks in the bottom quartile of the portfolio’s holdings and so the stock’s initiating weight is capped at a 2%. This contrasts significantly with Apple’s near-7% position in the S&P 500 benchmark, and reflects both our preference to avoid too much concentration risk as well our goal of ensuring that the overall portfolio valuation is as attractive as possible while balancing characteristics of stability and low indebtedness.”