Jim Cramer’s Latest Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks in July

2. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 150

Talking about the top performers of the second quarter, Jim Cramer reiterated his age-old mantra of “own it don’t trade it” for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), saying he has remained “steadfast” on his Apple thesis.

“We held it through this period for the trust, because we are still believers.”

Cramer said Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) showed at its WWDC event that it can offer the “best” of AI because “everybody in the industry wants access to Apple’s massive user base.”

“The stock soared when it dawned on the doubters that they can have its cake (access to the best of AI) and eat it too because they don’t have to spend tens of billions of dollars to build out their own collection of data centers.”

Apple is among the top picks of Wedbush’s Dan Ives for the second half of 2024.

TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also said in a fresh note that Apple has a competitive edge over others with its on-device AI.

Notable Wall Street analyst and Deepwater Asset Management Managing Partner Gene Munster recently made waves when he said in a post on Twitter that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a better investment than Nvidia for the long term. Munster believes owning Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) over the next year will have a higher return because the market is in “denial” about Apple’s AI potential.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is trading at 26X its 2025 EPS estimate ($7.22). This multiple, though higher than the industry average of 30, does not show the stock’s overvalued, given Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) sales growth of 6.40% for fiscal 2025 and 10.50% growth for the next five years on a per-annum basis.

Mar Vista Focus strategy stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

“Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock was pressured in the quarter as investors fretted over softening demand for smartphones, regulatory action from the US Department of Justice, and the Chinese government mandates restricting iPhone use by government officials. Despite these near-term headwinds, we continue to believe the company remains competitively advantaged and benefits from the Apple ecosystem, which has an installed base of over 2 billion devices and over 1 billion paying subscribers. We believe the Apple ecosystem will support a more predictable cash flow stream, which should grow intrinsic value high-single-digits over our investment horizon.”