We recently compiled a list of the 12 AI Stocks Making Headlines: Latest News and Ratings. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against the other AI stocks.
Mark Mahaney, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI, discussed how AI is reshaping the tech industry with Bloomberg’s Alix Steel and Paul Sweeney at the Bloomberg Invest conference in New York City. Amid a market downturn, with the Nasdaq 100 now trading below its 200-day moving average, Mahaney cited two reasons for the tech part of the sell-off.
First, he said the tech sector has witnessed phenomenal outperformance in the last two and a half years. Therefore, a mean reversion scenario implies that stocks that have significantly outperformed will eventually face downward adjustments. The second reason that he quoted is the tariff issues upending businesses, depending on how well-hedged they are.
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“Equity valuations have been very elevated and there’s been yellow flags all over the horizon given moves to cut government spending. Now on top of that, we have all this rhetoric around tariffs.”
-Ben McMillan, chief investment officer at IDX Insights in Tampa, Florida.
It’s not only the tech stocks that are going to be affected by the tariffs issue. According to McMillan, Wall Street is really concerned. “The likelihood of tariffs will lead to higher prices and therefore lower spending.”
“The fear here is that it’s going to slow (economic) growth. And when you have a slowdown in economic conditions, it’s a situation where banks specifically make less money because fewer goods and services are traveling through the economy.”
-Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments in New York.
Market volatility and tariff concerns may be shaping the tech sector, but another key factor has been influencing investor sentiment. When asked about a misconception in the AI world, Mahaney pointed to DeepSeek, stating that there was a misapprehension that the innovation would be highly disruptive for the hyperscalers.
He believes that the opposite has happened and that infrastructure has become a lot cheaper, with investors likely to get the money they have spent on capital expenditure, as well as a better return.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.
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 Holders: 166
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a technology company. One of the biggest analyst calls on Wednesday, March 5th, was for Apple Inc. Bank of America reiterated the stock as “Buy” and retained the price target of $265.00. The firm said it is sticking with the stock following data that shows App Store revenue increasing. App store revenue has witnessed a year-over-year revenue increase of 14% in the second fiscal quarter of 2025, driven by the expansion in its Productivity app category due to applications like ChatGPT.
Apple has also been broadening its ecosystem, including the Apple TV App on Android devices, which is anticipated to boost long-term subscription revenues. The company is also positioning itself to capitalize on advancements in AI on edge devices, another reason why the firm is optimistic on Apple’s earnings resilience and stable cash flows.
“Our Buy rating on Apple is based on 1) expected strong iPhone upgrade cycle in F25, F26 driven by the need for latest hardware to enable Gen AI features, 2) higher growth in Services revenue…”
Overall AAPL ranks 2nd on our list of the AI stocks that are making headlines. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. 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 Stock To Buy Now and Complete List of All AI Companies Under $2 Billion Market Cap.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.