11. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q2 2024: 184
Average Analyst EPS % Revision: 0.6%
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a dominating player in the global consumer electronics industry. The firm derives 52% of its revenue from the iPhone lineup, which makes smartphones a key part of its hypothesis. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s market value of $3.46 trillion, making it the most valuable company in the world, is built on the iPhone’s brand loyalty and based on belief surrounding the firm’s superior product design, manufacturing, and marketing practices. Consequently, any weakness in iPhone sales also tends to impact the share price. As an example, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s shares slid by nearly 3% in mid September after TF Securities’ well known iPhone analyst Ming-Chi Kuo noted that the first weekend sales of the latest iPhone 16 lineup were 12% lower than the year ago comparable figures for the iPhone 15. However, he added that the iPhone 16’s key differentiating factor, Apple Intelligence, was not available at launch. This suggests that if the analyst is correct, then the feature’s introduction could prove to be a catalyst to the sales and consequently, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock.
Baron Funds mentioned Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q2 2024 investor letter. Here is what the firm said:
“Recent Activity This quarter we re-initiated a position in Apple Inc., a leading technology company known for its innovative consumer electronics products like the iPhone, MacBook, iPad, and Apple Watch. Apple is a leader across its categories and geographies, with a growing installed base that now exceeds 2 billion devices globally. The company’s attached services – including the App Store, iCloud, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Pay – provide a higher margin, recurring revenue stream that both enhances the value proposition for its hardware products and improves the financial profile. Apple now has well over 1 billion subscribers paying for these services, more than double the number it had just 4 years ago. The increasing services mix has led to healthy operating margin improvement, providing more free cash flow for Apple to reinvest in the business and to distribute to shareholders. Throughout its 48-year history, Apple has successfully navigated and capitalized on major technological shis, from PCs to mobile to cloud computing. We believe the company’s leading brand and device ecosystem position it to do equally well in the AI age, and this was the driver of our decision to re-invest. “Apple Intelligence” – the AI strategy unveiled at Apple’s recent Worldwide Developer Conference – leverages on- device AI and integrations with tools like ChatGPT to enhance user experiences across its ecosystem. The AI suite enables users to create new images, summarize and generate text, and use Siri to perform actions across their mobile applications, all while maintaining user privacy and security. We think Apple Intelligence can drive accelerated product upgrade cycles and higher demand for Apple services. The combination of growth re-acceleration, increasing services contribution, and thoughtful capital allocation should continue driving long-term shareholder value.”
