We recently published a list of 10 Stocks Analysts are Talking About Amid Trump’s Tariff War. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other stocks analysts are talking about amid Trump’s tariff war.
Markets saw some glimmer of hope as President Donald Trump indicated that he does not plan to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and showed openness to engage in talks with China. However, China has said in a statement that the US should dial back all unilateral duties if it’s serious in negotiations.
Andrew Slimmon, Morgan Stanley Investment Management senior portfolio manager, explained in a recent program on CNBC what made Trump blink:
“I think…April 9th was an important day because on that day Trump came out and said I didn’t like what I saw in the bond market, I didn’t like Jamie Diamon saying there’s a recession coming and he said “So I’m putting a 90-day pause on.” So in my opinion, what he really said is tariffs are important to me but a recession’s worse and so there’s the priority which he basically gave you the indication there is a Trump put out there. I don’t think it’s down 10 15 but it was when the market was almost down 20 right, credit spread started to quake.”
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For this article, we picked 10 stocks Wall Street is talking about these days. With each stock, we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 158
Gil Luria, D.A. Davidson Managing Director, was recently asked on CNBC what Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) can do to mitigate the impact of tariffs. Here is what the analyst said:
“They’re going to have to accelerate the move to countries that are friendlier in terms of the new tariff regime in the new world that we’re going to live in. That starts with countries like India and Vietnam, but it continues to Mexico and other countries that Apple is going to have to move much of its production over the next few years. It started the process of diversifying, but that’s a multi-year process. So that’s why we’re hearing of urgent flights of planes full of iPhones out of India, because Apple has to move away. If we are going to decouple from China, which is still the likelihood, Apple has to move away from producing in China. It has to produce as little as possible there, maybe just for domestic consumption, in order to navigate the longer term. In the short term, it has some levers pushing expenses to suppliers, eating a little margins, passing some price increases to consumers. It’s going to be a rough year for Apple.”
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is desperately in need of new catalysts. The company’s revenue in China fell 8% in fiscal year 2024, following a 2% decline the previous year. The Chinese market accounts for about 15% of Apple’s total revenue, so this downtrend cannot be ignored.
Investors had hopes from the Wearables, Home, and Accessories segment, but so far, its performance has been weak. Vision Pro faces tough competition from Meta’s $500 Quest and the more affordable Quest 3S, making it hard to justify its $3,500 price tag. The failure of Apple’s HomePod, unable to compete with Amazon’s and Google’s lower-priced offerings, further highlights the challenges in this market.
Apple’s iPhone 16 has not shown promising growth prospects yet, and investors are still in a wait-and-see mode on the AI platform.
Columbia Seligman Global Technology Fund stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“The fund maintained a position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) throughout the quarter through the release of the company’s new iPhone 16 in September. Company leaders were excited about the release of the new model, as this is the first model that will feature enhanced AI capabilities through the Apple Intelligence features. Sales for the first few weeks in October and November trailed behind year over year sales from the iPhone 15, as availability of Apple Intelligence was not compatible with all iPhone models. Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI that has allowed the integration of ChatGPT into the Apple ecosystem, separate from the core Apple Intelligence features. This partnership highlights continued progress from Apple to introduce AI capabilities into its products and we expect the iPhone 17 to have even more expansive AI capabilities, increasing potential demand for the new model that is on track to be released in 2025.”
Overall, AAPL ranks 4th on our list of stocks analysts are talking about amid Trump’s tariff war.. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
