4. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 131
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the most valuable tech company, has always been a leader in the industry due to its innovation and unique products. Just when the market starts to believe Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has seen its peak, the company makes a comeback and ends up increasing its user base due to its excellent products. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s dominance in the smartphone industry, its huge growth in software and services, its media and content bets and AI- and VR-related investments could easily 10X the stock in the next 10 to 20 years. That’s why Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is labeled a potential ten-bagger stock by many of the media sources we consulted.
Insider Monkey’s database of 943 hedge funds shows that 131 hedge funds had stakes in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as of the end of the first quarter. The most notable hedge fund stakeholder of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway which owns a $151 billion stake in the company.
Manole Capital Management made the following comment about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Despite this, the S&P 500 is up 7% this year and the Nasdaq is up +11%. Technology rebounded from a challenging 2022 and many large tech companies are performing quite well this year. Through mid-May 2023, year-to-date performance of some of the most popular and largest names tech names is impressive. For tech companies with market capitalizations over $1 trillion, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is up +35%, Microsoft +33%, Amazon +39%, and Google is +40%. In terms of contribution to the S&P 500’s year-to-date return, Apple and Microsoft represent roughly half of its 2023 performance. Apple, and Microsoft now account for 13.9% of the entire S&P 500 or 80% more concentrated than 2008. For additional perspective, Apple’s market cap is at $2.8 trillion and that is larger than the market cap of the entire Russell 2000. To conclude, it’s distinctly getting more concentrated at the top.
For our purposes, we are just going to focus on software digital wallets, as they are much more common and accessible. If you own an iPhone, then you have an Apple Pay pre-loaded digital wallet. If you have a Samsung phone, you have Samsung Pay available for use. Those two, along with Google Pay and PayPal, are the four most popular digital wallets today. According to the Payments Journal, PayPal has been used (over the last 12 months) by 62% of American consumers, followed by Apple Pay at 41% and Google Pay at 32%.
Digital wallets have tons of advantages, that we are embracing. When we attend Tampa Bay Lightning games, we love having our season tickets easily accessible on our phones (via the Apple Pay wallet), as well as our timed parking pass. When we travel, loading the airline ticket into our Apple Pay wallet is much more convenient than printing out a paper boarding pass. Others are using digital wallets to track their expenses, budget properly, and even help them easily pay their bills. Digital wallets are still in their infancy and have decades of future growth; we believe the smartphone is simply the best interface and platform for digital wallets…” (Click here to read the full text)
