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Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Free Report) by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 109,006 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,527 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 8.3% of Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $31,542,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 14.1% in the first quarter. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. now owns 24,386 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,189,000 after acquiring an additional 3,014 shares during the last quarter. Eaton Cambridge Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 21.3% during the first quarter. Eaton Cambridge Inc. now owns 13,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,545,000 after acquiring an additional 2,450 shares during the last quarter. Torren Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter valued at $1,178,000. Summit Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Apple by 108.3% during the 1st quarter. Summit Wealth Partners LLC now owns 34,989 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,880,000 after purchasing an additional 18,188 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Davis R M Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Davis R M Inc. now owns 1,151,352 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $292,202,000 after purchasing an additional 23,162 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Apple News Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

Positive Sentiment: Investor optimism is building ahead of Apple’s September 9 product event, the first major launch under new CEO John Ternus. Ternus described the event as “phenomenal,” raising expectations for new premium iPhones and the company’s first foldable iPhone. Apple’s New CEO Teases “Phenomenal” iPhone Launch Positive Sentiment: The foldable iPhone could provide a significant new growth catalyst. Morgan Stanley estimates the device could contribute approximately $14 billion to the December quarter, while other projections suggest strong market share and premium pricing potential if demand materializes. Apple’s Foldable iPhone May Contribute $14 Billion Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley reaffirmed its Overweight rating and set a $360 price target, supporting the view that Apple’s product pipeline and earnings growth can justify its premium valuation. Apple’s services business also continues to benefit from price increases to Apple TV and Apple One. Apple TV Price Hike Neutral Sentiment: John Ternus has formally succeeded Tim Cook, while Cook remains executive chairman. The structure provides continuity and preserves Cook’s government and China relationships, but Ternus must prove that a product-focused strategy can improve Apple’s position in AI. Apple Leadership Transition Negative Sentiment: Jefferies downgraded Apple to Underperform, reportedly citing the cancellation of an all-glass MacBook or foldable MacBook project and skepticism that the foldable iPhone will be more than a niche product. Jefferies Downgrades Apple Negative Sentiment: Apple faces a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) UK lawsuit alleging that its App Tracking Transparency rules unfairly restrict third-party developers while favoring Apple’s own advertising services. BASF has also filed a separate patent lawsuit over face-authentication technology. BASF Patent Lawsuit Negative Sentiment: Rising memory-chip costs could lift iPhone production expenses sharply, forcing Apple to raise prices, accept lower margins or risk weaker demand. Analysts remain divided, with DA Davidson maintaining a Neutral rating and a $270 price target. Apple Product and Leadership Outlook Negative Sentiment: An Apple senior vice president sold 1,439 shares worth about $456,000. The sale was relatively small, leaving the executive with nearly 35,800 shares, but it may add modestly to near-term investor caution. Apple Insider Trading Filing Analyst Ratings Changes AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. DZ Bank lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Piper Sandler started coverage on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, August 17th. They issued an “overweight” rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $285.56 to $263.66 in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.61. Get Our Latest Analysis on AAPL

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple In other Apple news, SVP Jennifer Newstead sold 1,439 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.01, for a total transaction of $456,177.39. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 35,790 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,345,787.90. The trade was a 3.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ben Borders sold 116 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.14, for a total value of $34,236.24. Following the sale, the insider owned 38,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,425,754.82. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 5,872 shares of company stock worth $1,823,201 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 1.0% Shares of AAPL stock opened at $328.21 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $314.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $290.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.93. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $225.95 and a 1-year high of $344.57. The firm has a market cap of $4.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.64, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.08.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $109.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $109.04 billion. Apple had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 135.46%. Apple’s revenue was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.57 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 8.74 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.39%.

Apple Company Profile (Free Report)

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, software and services. Over its history Apple has evolved from personal computers to a broad portfolio that spans mobile devices, wearables, home entertainment and digital services.

Apple’s principal hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, Mac personal computers, Apple Watch wearable devices and a range of accessories such as AirPods and HomePod.

Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Apple The Path to $230 Billion: Broadcom Outlines the Next Phase of Its AI Growth Story NVIDIA’s Hugging Face Deal Raises a Bigger Question About Its AI Moat Now Dropping the Dough: Yum! Brands Strategically Trims the Fat These 3 Stock Charts Just Flashed the Dreaded Death Cross Pattern Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AAPL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Free Report).

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Apple Abandons Large Foldable MacBook: New OLED MacBook Plans Revealed Summary

Apple cancels plans for a large foldable MacBook and another OLED model while keeping its broader OLED roadmap intact

Apple is reshaping its MacBook roadmap, dropping plans for two larger OLED models while keeping its broader transition to OLED screens on track, Omdia said.

The canceled products included a foldable MacBook designed to reach 16.1 to 18 inches when opened and another notebook planned with a 14.4-inch to 16.1-inch OLED panel. The move leaves the existing MacBook Pro size range of 14.3 to 16.3 inches intact.

Apple (AAPL) still plans to expand OLED technology across its MacBook and iPad products. Omdia expects 14.3-inch and 16.3-inch OLED MacBook Pro versions to arrive in late 2026, while current mini-LED models could stay available through at least 2028.

Looking further ahead, Apple is expected to introduce a 13.8-inch MacBook in 2029. The device could sit between the MacBook Air and Pro and feature touch-sensitive OLED technology and an under-display camera, according to Omdia.

The changes could keep Apple's OLED strategy in focus while raising questions about its longer-term MacBook product lineup.

Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.

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Apple (AAPL.O) is facing a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) London lawsuit brought on behalf of app developers over its app tracking rules, with the ​iPhone maker accused of abusing its power to unfairly impose ‌greater restrictions on third parties.

The lawsuit, filed at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal on Thursday, follows years of regulatory scrutiny over Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature, which ​was launched in 2021.

Apple has said it introduced that feature to ​allow users to control whether to grant apps permission ⁠to track their activity across other companies' apps and websites.

Lawyers bringing the ​new lawsuit against Apple, though, say the feature imposed stricter requirements on ​third-party app developers than on Apple's own services, giving its advertising ecosystem a competitive advantage.

Ann Pope, a former senior official with Britain's Competition and Markets Authority who ​is leading the lawsuit, said Apple's policy "resulted in very significant harm ​to businesses that depend on Apple as a gatekeeper".

"This action is important to protect ‌the ⁠rights of British businesses that depend on Apple, to ensure that the rules that Apple applies are fair, and to compensate the losses that British companies have suffered," Pope said in a statement.

Apple, which has previously ​said its App ​Tracking Transparency provides "important ⁠privacy protections", did not immediately comment.

Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature has been the subject of investigations across ​Europe, in particular in Germany where Apple last month agreed ​changes to ⁠rules on how app developers can use personal data for targeted advertising.

The German competition authority had accused Apple of abusing its market power, after Facebook-owner ⁠Meta (META.O) plus ​publishers, advertisers and app developers – whose business ​models rely on advertising tracking – criticised the tool.

Regulators in France, Italy, Poland and elsewhere have also probed the ​App Tracking Transparency framework.

($1 = 0.7412 pounds)

Jim Cramer called Apple's balance sheet pristine while slamming hyperscalers for wrecking theirs on AI data centers, but the actual filings tell a more complicated story about who is really carrying the heavier debt load.

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On Tim Cook’s final day as chief executive, Jim Cramer delivered a verdict that reframes the entire hyperscaler debate. Speaking on Mad Money on August 31, 2026, he called Apple’s balance sheet “pristine…the envy of the industry, maybe any industry” while accusing the AI infrastructure giants of the opposite sin.

“The hyperscalers have wrecked their balance sheets to build these data centers. They’re the ones to worry about, not Apple.”

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) closed FY2025 with $112.377 billion in total debt, $73.733 billion in equity, and retained earnings of negative $14.264 billion. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), the poster child for AI capex excess, closed the same year with $415.265 billion in equity and only $59.291 billion of debt.

Reading the Filings Side by Side Apple carries nearly twice the total debt Alphabet does, and its debt-to-equity ratio sits at 1.5241 versus Alphabet’s 0.1428. The negative retained earnings are the direct arithmetic of the buybacks Cramer praised in the same breath: Apple has repurchased $62.094 billion of stock in the nine months through June 27, 2026, on top of $90.711 billion in FY2025.

Alphabet’s leverage jumped fast this year. Long-term debt more than doubled from $46.547 billion at year-end 2025 to $98.165 billion by June 30, 2026, funding CapEx guided to $175 billion to $185 billion for 2026. The buyback program was suspended in Q2 2026. Free cash flow flipped to negative $5.86 billion.

Why the Market Isn’t Punishing Apple Cramer’s framing survives scrutiny for a reason: liquidity. Apple holds $39.544 billion in cash and $84.118 billion in long-term investments, a cushion that dwarfs the near-term maturities. Net debt to EBITDA sits at 0.528, and interest coverage on Alphabet’s side remains at 175.3x. Both companies remain financially sound.

Investors have voted with their wallets. Apple is up 16.87% year to date through September 2, 2026, versus Alphabet’s 8.56% gain. Apple trades at a 42 P/E multiple, roughly triple Alphabet’s 14.

What to Watch as Ternus Takes Over Bloomberg reports the John Ternus era begins after Cook’s 2,300% stock gain, with CNBC flagging AI challenges and a memory crunch ahead. If Apple accelerates its own AI infrastructure build, the buyback pace will collide with capex needs, and the “pristine” label will face its first real test. All that hyperscaler spending has to be powered, cooled, and networked by someone, and we pulled together seven suppliers doing exactly that in a free AI infrastructure report.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Apple Today

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A price rise on a television subscription might not sound like the sort of thing to move the needle on one of the world's most valuable companies. Yet the increase Apple Inc. NASDAQ: AAPL pushed through last week, lifting the cost of its Apple TV service and its flagship Apple One bundle by up to 20%, speaks volumes about the strategy now driving the business, and by extension, its stock.

The timing is interesting. Apple shares are up 20% so far this year, and have been consolidating comfortably just below the all-time highs they set back in July. Layered on top of that is the fact that the new CEO, John Ternus, formally takes the reins this week. All told, last week’s seemingly straightforward price hike is actually a useful window into where the company, and its shares, might be heading next.

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Squeezing More From the EcosystemThe price rises themselves are straightforward enough. The monthly cost of Apple TV climbs to just under $15, its annual plan jumps to $119, and the all-in-one Apple One bundle edges up to nearly $22 a month. Taken alone, each is a modest sum, but together they reveal a clear direction.

What makes the move so significant is what it says about Apple's pricing power. The company is confident it can charge its enormous customer base up to 20% more for the same service without sending them running for the exits. For context, Apple TV's monthly price has tripled since it launched in 2019.

Underpinning that confidence is the sheer scale of Apple's ecosystem, with more than 1.5 billion paid subscriptions and an installed base topping 2.5 billion active devices. Bundling services together, as the Apple One subscription does, encourages customers to sign up for more of them and makes it harder to leave, quietly boosting both loyalty and the average revenue squeezed from each user.

Why Services Hold the KeyTo understand why any of this matters for the stock, you have to appreciate just how central services have become to the Apple story. Once a company defined almost entirely by the iPhone, Apple now leans heavily on a services division that has become its most prized growth engine.

The numbers explain the enthusiasm. Services revenue hit a record nearly $31 billion in the most recent quarter, up 12% year over year despite currency headwinds, with records across advertising, the App Store, music, and video. Crucially, Apple’s services unit is far more profitable than its hardware unit, so every dollar earned there has an outsized impact on Apple's bottom line.

This is the crux of the bull case. As rising memory and other component costs squeeze the profitability of Apple's hardware, a thriving, high-margin services business offers a powerful counterweight. Price rises like last week's feed directly into that engine, which is precisely why investors should be so excited.

The Other Side of the CoinNone of this is to say the path ahead is entirely smooth, and the more cautious voices have some fair points to make. For one, Apple's shares are hardly cheap, trading on a valuation that already assumes durable services growth, resilient iPhone sales, and successful execution of an AI strategy that has many investors scratching their heads. That leaves little margin for error should any of those pillars wobble.

More immediate pressures remain, too. Rising memory costs are set to weigh on hardware margins for the foreseeable future, and there's obviously a limit to how far Apple can keep raising prices before price-sensitive customers begin to balk. Even the mighty services arm isn't immune, and its growth rate has somewhat cooled from the brisker pace it set earlier in the year.

Then there is the great unknown of AI. Apple has been notably more cautious in this space than its rivals, and questions linger over whether it can turn its AI efforts into tangible sales and services revenue. For John Ternus, the new leader who stepped in Sept. 1, price rises like this one may buy some time, but proving Apple can hold its own in the AI age is likely to be the defining challenge of his tenure.

A Confident Signal in a Time of ChangeViewed as part of a bigger picture, last week's price rises point to a company executing confidently on the strategy investors most want to see: extracting ever more value from its vast, loyal customer base through high-margin services.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) Price Chart for Wednesday, September, 2, 2026

That's a reassuring signal at a moment of transition, and it suggests continuity in the approach that has served Apple so well in years past. The fact that its shares have been steadily recovering from their post-earnings dip to sit just shy of record highs, while the stock carries a MarketBeat consensus rating of Moderate Buy, makes it hard to bet against Apple as the new era begins.

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Apple's next CEO inherits a trillion-dollar empire and a glaring weakness that rivals have exploited for years. A top tech analyst says fixing one product could determine whether Apple leads the AI era or gets left behind.

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Daniel Newman, CEO of Futurum Group, used a CNBC interview on August 31 to argue that incoming leadership at Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) inherits a company with an unresolved AI problem alongside a fortress balance sheet.

Newman told CNBC, “Tim accomplished a lot in his time. It’s very hard to look at 2,200%+, becoming the world’s most valuable company by market cap.” He noted that Apple surpassed $5 trillion in market cap last month and that Cook spent $877 billion on buybacks, described in the segment as more than the entire Magnificent Seven combined. As of Monday, the stock trades at $314.76, up 17.92% year to date and 37.98% over the past year.

Tim Cook’s Apple Created Enormous Wealth In Newman’s assessment, Cook-era numbers are strong in absolute terms but undifferentiated relative to peers. “The performance was good. It was very good. But it was really kind of equal among peers. And Tesla, of course, blew it away on more of these massive trends that they were able to pick up in tailwinds,” he said.

Newman argues that Apple underperformed Google, Amazon, Tesla, and NVIDIA during the recent AI boom, and Apple’s diversification bets outside the phone did not connect: the headsets flopped, the car efforts failed, and the smart home never gained traction.

Financially, the current business runs hot. Apple reported Q3 FY2026 revenue of $109.4 billion, up 16.36% year over year, with EPS of $2.02 versus an estimated $1.8914. iPhone contributed $54.3 billion, up 22%, and Services hit $30.7 billion, up 12%.

Why Siri Could Decide Apple’s AI Future Newman’s main point is that Apple still controls the surface where users meet AI, even if its AI assistant has lagged. “Siri hasn’t been as successful as I think many people had hoped. But having said that, the partnerships with Google, the fact that they are still the experience layer that so many of us are experiencing it on an Apple device, especially on the phone in the mobile side,” he said. Owning the interface layer differs from owning the underlying model, and Newman argues that leverage still matters.

On the Q3 call, Tim Cook said: “We were tremendously excited to unveil the all-new Siri AI, a completely reimagined version of Siri that is profoundly capable, deeply personal, and integrated seamlessly across our platforms.” R&D spending rose to $11.7 billion in Q3 2026, up from $8.9 billion year over year, and operating expenses climbed 23% year over year.

Why CEO John Ternus Could Signal a Return to Engineering Newman argues the bigger question is whether smartphones will remain the dominant device: “The question is, is the handset going to be the device of the future? We’ve seen the headsets kind of flop. Cars didn’t work out. Apple’s smart home never really became a thing,” he said.

Against that backdrop, Newman frames the leadership change as a deliberate tilt toward product invention: “Ternus is more of a hardware, he’s more of an engineering side, you know, go back to the Steve Jobs era. And they need that. They need to reinvent themselves, because I think getting Siri right is the first step.”

Key Takeaways Cook leaves Apple with enormous scale, cash flow and control over one of the world’s most important consumer computing platforms. But Newman argues that the next CEO will need to turn that distribution advantage into real AI leadership. Getting Siri right may be the first test.

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On his last earnings call as Apple (AAPL -0.89%) CEO, Tim Cook said his company is facing a unique challenge due to a shortage of memory chips for its devices.

Data centers are gobbling up available memory, leaving Apple and its peers paying more for memory than in the past, and causing shortages. Cook said he anticipates "market pricing for memory continuing to increase, which could drive an increasing impact on our business."

Importantly, management said rising memory costs could affect iPhone sales and reduce the company's margins beyond the current quarter.

Cook's warning came as new Apple CEO John Ternus just took the helm at the company. Here's what Apple shareholders need to know about the memory shortage's impact on Apple's margins.

Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus. Image source: Apple.

Cook said on the third-quarter earnings call that Apple has consistently anticipated paying more for memory in each subsequent quarter. And that's exactly what's happened. Cook noted:

"As I alluded to last quarter, we expected to pay significantly more in the June quarter than the March quarter, and that is what happened.... For September, we expect to pay even higher memory costs..."

While Apple has the benefit of pre-purchasing memory at a lower cost, Cook said this benefit is declining over time and will continue to do so beyond the September quarter because prices keep rising.

Apple raised prices on its Macs in June and is widely expected to increase the prices of some of its new iPhones when they debut on Sept. 9. Price hikes help offset some of the rising memory costs, but they're not enough to erase the damage.

And Apple's management was clear that its device margins would fall.

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Apple's margins will drop (at least temporarily) under Ternus Apple CFO Kevan Parekh said on the call that the company's margins will be 46.5% for the September quarter, down from 48.1% in the June quarter (excluding tariff benefits). And he specifically cited memory as the reason for the decline, noting that the decrease is "really driven by memory."

This decline comes just as John Ternus is taking over for Cook. So what might Ternus do about the falling margins?

Apple has reportedly already tested DRAM memory chips from the Chinese company CXMT. The idea behind the move is that Apple could use memory from this supplier for Apple devices sold in China. The Financial Times has also reported that Apple is lobbying the U.S. government to allow broader use of CXMT's memory processors outside of China.

But that likely won't be the fix Apple needs. CXMT has already reached its annual memory production capacity, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For now, it looks as if Apple's margins will decline slightly under Ternus, and the company doesn't have a permanent fix -- even with raising device prices.

Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology are the world's three largest memory companies -- accounting for about 94% of the DRAM memory market -- and all are all Apple suppliers. And management at SK Hynix and Micron have said the current memory crunch could last through 2027 or even 2030.

All of which means that Apple will likely be battling to regain its margins early in Ternus' tenure -- at least until the company can find the right mix of price increases and memory supply.

Apple shares AAPL fell 1.8% on Monday as John Ternus prepares to take over as chief executive, succeeding Tim Cook after more than a decade at the helm.

Ternus will assume control of a company valued at nearly $5 trillion, making sustaining Apple's growth from its current scale one of his biggest challenges.

The incoming CEO inherits a business that has expanded significantly under Cook.

Apple sold about 72 million iPhones in the year Cook became CEO, while Counterpoint Research estimates the company will sell 255 million this year.

Cook's tenure has also been defined by disciplined capital allocation, regular product launches and a substantial expansion of Apple's services business. T

he company has returned more than $1 trillion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.

However, investors are now looking for Apple's next major growth driver, particularly as artificial intelligence reshapes the technology industry.

One of Ternus's immediate priorities will be Apple's artificial intelligence strategy, particularly the development of Siri.

Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman said Apple needs to identify the next major computing platform after the smartphone. "Apple needs to own this," Newman said in a CNBC interview, adding that he believes this is Ternus's "big job."

Newman argued that Apple currently occupies an important position as the "experience layer" for AI because consumers increasingly use services such as ChatGPT and Claude through Apple devices.

However, he said the company has yet to fully capitalize on that position.

Apple has announced software improvements designed to make Siri capable of completing more tasks.

Early tests of the Siri AI beta by the Wall Street Journal found that it could take longer than competing assistants, although Apple's use of Google technology on the backend has significantly improved its capabilities.

Newman said Apple's bigger challenge goes beyond Siri and concerns whether the iPhone itself will remain the central device for computing.

"Is the handset going to be the device of the future?" Newman asked.

He pointed to efforts by OpenAI and Meta to develop new devices that could change how consumers interact with technology.

Apple's valuation presents another challenge for Ternus.

The stock trades at 33 times next year's earnings, compared with about 20 times for the S&P 500, even though Apple's earnings are growing at roughly half the market's rate.

Craig Moffett of Moffett Nathanson said investors have been willing to pay a premium for Apple because it appears relatively safe amid uncertainty over returns from massive AI investments.

However, he cautioned, "when valuation gets stretched, safety isn't safe anymore."

Apple is also dealing with pressure across its supply chain.

AI companies are competing for memory, storage and logic-chip capacity, potentially increasing Apple's costs and contributing to shortages. The company has passed some higher costs on to consumers.

Apple's continued dependence on China is another issue facing Ternus.

While Cook has largely managed tariff-related risks through political engagement, much of Apple's supply chain remains concentrated in China amid an ongoing US-China trade conflict.

The company's services business is facing pressure as well. A California judge's rulings have reduced Apple's ability to collect fees from some in-app purchases. Appfigures estimates that Apple's US App Store commission revenue fell 6% in the June quarter.

Despite these challenges, Apple enters the transition with several strengths.

The iPhone remains highly popular, with the iPhone 17 Pro benefiting from improvements including a better camera and stronger battery.

The Mac is also seeing renewed demand as Apple-designed chips prove capable of running large language models locally, contributing to product shortages.

A foldable iPhone is also expected to feature in Ternus's first iPhone launch event.

IDC estimates the device could capture 40% of the foldable smartphone market by the end of 2027.

Newman said Ternus also faces a high bar following Cook's tenure. He credited Cook with building Apple's global supply chain and strong unit economics, while noting that Ternus's background in hardware and engineering gives him a different skill set.

"We've seen the headsets kind of flop. Cars didn't work out. Apple's smart home never really became a thing," Newman said, highlighting Apple's difficulty in creating successful new product categories.

Apple's stock has gained more than 2,200% during Cook's tenure, although Newman said it has lagged several Magnificent Seven peers. He also estimated that Apple spent about $877 billion on share buybacks during that period.

For Ternus, the task is therefore not simply to maintain Apple's existing businesses, but to establish where the company's next phase of growth will come from as AI changes the technology landscape.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down from his role at the helm of one of the world's largest tech companies after a 15-year tenure that saw Apple become the first publicly traded U.S. company with a $1 trillion market cap and other notable milestones.

He announced in April that he would step down as Apple CEO at the end of August, and while he is leaving that role, he will remain with the company as the executive chairman. John Ternus, who most recently served as Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, will be Cook's successor.

Cook became CEO in August 2011 when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs resigned six weeks before his death. Jobs first met Cook in 1998 and convinced him to join Apple that year, starting his career at the tech giant as a senior vice president for worldwide operations.

"As you know, I am not leaving Apple. But I am stepping away from a role that I have loved deeply," Cook said in a memo emailed to all employees on his final day. "I will miss this work in ways I can only begin to imagine, even as I remain completely at peace with my decision."

APPLE POSTS RECORD JUNE QUARTER AS IPHONE SALES SURGE; COOK WEIGHS IN ON AI, CHINA

Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down from the role on Monday, Aug. 31, after leading the company to historic milestones during his tenure at the helm. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

"Together, we have created something far greater than any one of us could have imagined or accomplished alone. And that's the secret to our success. We bring out the best in each other. We lift each other up," Cook said.

"We have made it possible to leave our 'dent in the universe,' as Steve once described it, because of who we are and what we believe, because of what we value and how we see the world," he added.

Cook's tenure at Apple saw the tech giant move to compete in new product and service categories, building a broader consumer tech ecosystem off of the MacBook, iPhone and iPad.

APPLE CEO TIM COOK TO STEP DOWN IN MAJOR LEADERSHIP SHAKEUP, SUCCESSOR NAMED

Tim Cook served 15 years as Apple CEO and will remain as the company's executive chairman. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

In 2014, Cook and the company announced the Apple Watch as the company entered the wearable health tech market, while it also launched Apply Pay that year to build on its base of consumer device users to compete in mobile payments.

The next year, Apple Music marked the company's pivot from iTunes to a subscription-based model for consumers who stream their music, while 2016 saw the debut of Apple's AirPods which supercharged the growth of the company's wearables division. The company also launched Apple TV+ and Apple Card in 2019 as it continued to broaden its service offerings.

Apple also hit a number of major corporate milestones under Cook's leadership. It became the first U.S.-based publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization in 2018. 

Apple later reached the $2 trillion milestone in 2020, surpassed the $3 trillion market for the first time in 2022 during intraday trading, then crossed $4 trillion in October 2025. It briefly overtook Nvidia for largest market cap in July 2026.

WHO IS JOHN TERNUS, SET TO SUCCEED TIM COOK AS APPLE'S CEO?

Ticker Security Last Change Change % AAPL APPLE INC. 319.70 +5.12 +1.63% Over the years, Apple has vied with ExxonMobil, Nvidia and Microsoft for the title of most valuable publicly traded U.S. company, with the top spot regularly changing hands among those companies. Within that period, Apple ranked first for much of the 2013 to 2018 period.

Apple currently has a market cap of roughly $4.6 trillion, ranking second behind Nvidia's $5.25 trillion market cap while leading Microsoft's $3.79 trillion valuation.

Apple is planning to hold the first major event under new CEO John Ternus next week on Sept. 9, when it will unveil its newest iPhone and could potentially reveal the long-awaited foldable iPhone.

Cook said in his letter that he takes "enormous comfort in handing the helm to someone as brilliant and wonderful and capable as John," adding that few people "understand what it takes to build products that change the world the way John does and I could not be more excited for his leadership."

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A report by Reuters noted that analysts expect Apple to launch a foldable iPhone, entering a new segment of the smartphone market to compete with Samsung in the growing device segment.

Florida Trust Wealth Management Co increased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Free Report) by 2.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 665,009 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 15,941 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises approximately 4.8% of Florida Trust Wealth Management Co’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Florida Trust Wealth Management Co’s holdings in Apple were worth $192,427,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 14.1% in the 1st quarter. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. now owns 24,386 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,189,000 after acquiring an additional 3,014 shares during the last quarter. Eaton Cambridge Inc. grew its position in Apple by 21.3% during the 1st quarter. Eaton Cambridge Inc. now owns 13,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,545,000 after acquiring an additional 2,450 shares during the last quarter. Torren Management LLC bought a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter worth $1,178,000. Summit Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 108.3% in the 1st quarter. Summit Wealth Partners LLC now owns 34,989 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,880,000 after purchasing an additional 18,188 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adventist Health System Sunbelt Healthcare Corp bought a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at about $105,482,000. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $310.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Seaport Research Partners downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $365.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.53.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on Apple Insiders Place Their Bets In other Apple news, insider Ben Borders sold 116 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.14, for a total transaction of $34,236.24. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 38,713 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,425,754.82. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, SVP Jennifer Newstead sold 1,439 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.95, for a total value of $447,457.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 37,229 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,576,357.55. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 4,433 shares of company stock worth $1,367,024 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance Shares of AAPL stock opened at $319.70 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.66, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.09. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $312.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $288.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.93. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $225.95 and a one year high of $344.57.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.13. Apple had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 135.46%. The firm had revenue of $109.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.57 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 8.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Investors of record on Monday, August 10th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 12.39%.

Apple News Summary Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

Positive Sentiment: Apple’s September 9 event will be the first major product launch under incoming CEO John Ternus. Expectations for the iPhone 18 lineup, camera improvements and a possible foldable iPhone are supporting sentiment. IDC reportedly expects more than 10 million foldable iPhone shipments in the first year, although that forecast remains speculative. Apple stock rises ahead of September event Positive Sentiment: Apple is raising U.S. prices for Apple TV and Apple One subscriptions, in some cases by up to 20%. The increases could lift services revenue and margins, though investors will monitor customer retention and potential subscription churn. Apple raises subscription prices Positive Sentiment: Walmart plans to add Apple Pay support across its U.S. stores and Sam’s Club locations by the end of 2026. Wider acceptance could increase Apple Pay usage and strengthen Apple’s payments ecosystem. Walmart to add Apple Pay support Positive Sentiment: Recent results provide fundamental support: Apple reported quarterly EPS of $2.02 versus a $1.89 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 16.4% year over year to $109.42 billion. Neutral Sentiment: The CEO transition creates both opportunity and execution risk. Ternus’s product-design background is viewed favorably, but he will face an immediate test with the iPhone launch shortly after taking over from Tim Cook. Apple’s first iPhone launch under John Ternus Negative Sentiment: Apple is eliminating roughly 147–200 jobs across Siri, machine-learning and Vision Pro teams while redirecting resources toward AI. The restructuring may improve focus, but it also highlights concerns about Siri’s delays and Apple’s position in generative AI. Apple layoffs in Siri and Vision Pro teams Negative Sentiment: High expectations and a premium valuation leave less room for disappointing foldable-iPhone demand, AI progress or margins. Rising memory-chip costs could also pressure profitability. Negative Sentiment: Apple SVP Jennifer Newstead sold 1,439 shares worth approximately $447,000. The sale is small relative to Apple’s size and may be routine, but it provides a modest negative sentiment signal. SEC Form 4 filing About Apple (Free Report)

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, software and services. Over its history Apple has evolved from personal computers to a broad portfolio that spans mobile devices, wearables, home entertainment and digital services.

Apple’s principal hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, Mac personal computers, Apple Watch wearable devices and a range of accessories such as AirPods and HomePod.

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Apple has run nearly 38% in a year, printed a ninth straight earnings beat, and authorized a massive buyback, yet something in the numbers is making analysts pause before calling it a buy.

At $319.70, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) is a Hold for existing shareholders. The stock has run hard off its early-year base, and the setup at this level rewards patience over conviction in either direction.

Apple sells iPhones, Macs, iPads, Wearables, and Services to installed base of more than 2.5 billion active devices. It sits at the center of premium consumer electronics with a $4.67 trillion market cap, competing against Samsung in hardware and against major cloud and platform giants for digital services spending.

The move to $320 followed three consecutive double-digit revenue growth quarters, an aggressive $100 billion buyback authorization, and the iPhone 17 super-cycle launch. The question now is how much of that good news is already priced in.

Why Bulls See Room to Run Q3 FY2026 delivered revenue of $109.4 billion, up 16% year over year, with iPhone revenue of $54.3 billion, up 22% and Services at a record $30.7 billion, up 12%. That marks a ninth consecutive EPS beat.

Management expects September quarter revenue growth of 9% to 11%, driven by an iPhone lineup Tim Cook called “the most powerful and most popular iPhone lineup we’ve ever had.” Siri AI is shipping, paid subscriptions have surpassed $1.5 billion, and Apple ended the quarter with $147 billion in cash and marketable securities. The consensus analyst target sits at $324.45, and 28 of 46 covering analysts rate the stock Buy or Strong Buy.

Why Bears Say the Easy Money Is Gone Valuation is the problem. Apple trades at a trailing P/E of 36 and a forward P/E of 33, well above its historical range, with a PEG of 2.5. The $0.11 tariff refund benefit flattered Q3 EPS, and management flagged September quarter supply constraints will increase significantly across iPhone, Mac, and iPad.

Memory pricing is another overhang. Cook described it as a “100-year flood”, forcing Apple to “reluctantly” raise prices. September gross margin guidance of 47% to 48% steps down from the 50.1% reported in the quarter. Insider disposals by the general counsel occurred at prices between $307 and $311.

Why Waiting Is the Sober Read Both bull and bear cases are defensible, signaling a hold. Fundamentals are excellent, but the stock has already absorbed a big rerating. Apple traded at $259.45 in late January and $270.84 in late April before this run.

Reddit sentiment reads neutral at 42, and the composite prediction score sits at 52 with medium confidence. Holders should watch three things: Siri AI monetization traction, Greater China trajectory ($18.8 billion in Q3 after $25.5 billion in Q1), and whether memory costs compress margins beyond the September guide.

How the Numbers Frame the Setup Shares trade at $319.70 against an average analyst target of $324.45, implying roughly 1.5% upside to consensus. That is a thin cushion. The ratings breakdown across 46 covering analysts is 6 Strong Buy, 22 Buy, 14 Hold, 2 Sell, and 2 Strong Sell.

AAPL is up 17.92% year to date and 37.98% over the past year, ahead of the S&P 500’s 12.82% year to date and 18.56% one-year gains. Over the past month, Apple has slipped 5.38% while the index has added 5.47%, a rare stretch of relative underperformance after a heavy rerating.

Hold Verdict at $320 At $319.70, Apple is a Hold.

The core business is compounding, cash return is enormous, and the balance sheet offers genuine defensive equity exposure. Selling here looks premature. But paying 33x forward earnings for mid-teens revenue growth, with a September quarter that will lap tariff refunds, absorb memory inflation, and face heavier supply constraints, does not offer the margin of safety a new buyer wants.

A Buy upgrade would require evidence that Siri AI is driving iCloud+ tier migration, that Greater China is stabilizing, and that memory pass-through is holding margins near guidance. A Sell downgrade would require an iPhone 17 demand air pocket, sustained China weakness, or margin slippage below the September range.

$25.8 billion of share repurchases in a single quarter plus the dividend backstops the floor while the market waits for cleaner comps to judge whether the iPhone super-cycle is durable or a pull-forward.

For existing shareholders with diversified portfolios, holding Apple at $320 captures the defensive quality of a fortress balance sheet without chasing a stock that has already priced in most of the good news.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Apple raised its streaming price for Apple TV Friday from $12.99 to $14.99 per month or $119 a year when it used to cost $99.

Apple also raised the price of its Apple One service, which combines Apple TV and other services such as iCloud storage, Apple Music and Apple Arcade.

Apple One is now $21.95 for an individual plan, up from $19.95.

DISNEY SETTLEMENT COULD PAY YOUTUBE TV AND DIRECTV USERS

The cast of Apple TV's "Ted Lasso"  ( Cindy Ord/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The tech giant last raised its streaming prices a year ago from $9.99 to $12.99.

Apple TV isn’t the only streaming service to go up. Peacock, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+, Max and YouTube Premium have all raised their prices in some form in the last few years with some putting hikes on ad-free streaming.

Ticker Security Last Change Change % AAPL APPLE INC. 319.70 +5.12 +1.63% Apple TV cost just $4.99 per month when it launched in 2019.

The streaming service includes favorites like "Ted Lasso," "Your Friends and Neighbors," "The Morning Show," "Severance," "Silo," "Mark Matter," plus it has the exclusive rights to the Charlie Brown specials and Formula 1 racing.

Jennifer Aniston promoting "The Morning Show" in June (Monica Schipper/WireImage / Getty Images)

FIRST PREVIEW DROPS FOR 'BROTHERS' AS 'TRUE DETECTIVE' STARS REUNITE ON APPLE TV THIS SEPTEMBER

The price for Apple Music also went up in July from $10.99 to $11.99 per month.

Apple reported a record June quarter with $109.4 billion in revenue, which beat analysts' estimates of $108.65 billion in the company's final earnings report before CEO Tim Cook steps down.

WASHINGTON POST FACES CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT ALLEGING 'SURVEILLANCE PRICING' OF SUBSCRIBERS

Apple iPhone 17 Pros are displayed during an Apple special event at Apple headquarters in September 2025 in Cupertino, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

A 22% jump in iPhone sales, combined with record spring quarter Mac revenue, helped drive the results.

Tariff refunds also boosted Apple's bottom line, adding roughly 5% to profit during the period.

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FOX Business has reached out to Apple for comment.

FOX Business' Susan Li contributed to this report.

Under CEO Tim Cook, Apple (AAPL +1.63%) has delivered an impressive 2,000%-plus return since 2011. Now, as Cook prepares to hand the reins to Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, John Ternus, he's doubling down on a stronger domestic supply chain -- with $60 billion earmarked for Texas.

The goal appears straightforward: reduce the risk of future tariff disruptions and protect Apple's margins and earnings path, freeing Ternus, who takes the top job on Sept. 1, to focus on what he does best: building world-class products and services.

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Image source: Apple.

The Texas investment is part of a broader $600 billion, four-year U.S. manufacturing commitment Apple announced last year. Apple still won't be making iPhones in the U.S., but it will manufacture the Mac mini at a new facility in Houston. The new facility will also build and ship Apple's advanced AI servers.

Separately, Apple recently announced a long-term agreement with Broadcom to design and produce custom silicon components and advanced wireless technologies -- a deal expected to exceed $30 billion.

On the company's fiscal Q3 earnings call, Cook said, "This marks our largest-ever American manufacturing program commitment. It's also an important step forward in our work to build an end-to-end silicon supply chain here in the U.S."

Even if making iPhones domestically remains out of reach without meaningfully higher prices, shifting more of the supply chain to U.S. sources should help Apple better manage future changes in tariff and trade policy.

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What the domestic investment means for earnings Apple's latest quarterly report showed how much tariff policies can swing results. Gross margin was 50.1%, with 2 percentage points coming from tariff refunds. Diluted earnings per share grew 29% year over year to $2.02, including $0.11 from refunds. Apple said it is reinvesting those tariff refunds into the U.S. supply chain.

The refunds are for tariffs already paid before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February 2026 that certain tariffs were unlawful. But that doesn't eliminate the risk of other tariffs being imposed under different statutes, prompting Apple to continue investing in the U.S.

The near-term pressure point is memory costs. Management described today's surge in memory pricing as a "100-year flood." For fiscal Q4 ending in September, Apple expects gross margin between 47% and 48%, including a one-point benefit from tariff refunds.

Overall, Cook will hand off to Ternus a more resilient U.S. supply chain. Analysts still expect Apple to grow earnings at a low double-digit rate over the long term. While the memory price surge could be a near-term headwind, Apple's efforts to bolster its U.S. supply chain essentially serve as tariff insurance over the long term, helping keep earnings and margins more stable in the event of future policy changes.

As Tim Cook prepares to step down as Apple’s chief executive officer on September 1, ending a 15-year tenure, investors who backed Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) when he took over have been richly rewarded.

Since Cook assumed the CEO role on August 24, 2011, Apple shares have risen from a split-adjusted closing price of $11.25 to $319.70 as of the last trading session.

AAPL all-time stock price chart. Source: Finbold As a result, a $1,000 investment made on that day would now be worth approximately $28,418, representing a gain of more than 2,740%.

The return reflects Apple’s transformation under Cook from a company valued at roughly $350 billion into one with a market capitalization of about $4.67 trillion.

Apple’s explosive growth  Apple’s growth was driven by a sharp increase in revenue, which expanded from $108 billion in fiscal 2011 to $416 billion in fiscal 2025. Trailing 12-month sales have also approached $467 billion.

The iPhone remains Apple’s largest revenue driver, generating more than $200 billion annually and accounting for roughly half of total sales. However, the services segment has become one of the company’s key growth engines.

Services revenue, which includes the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Pay, now exceeds $100 billion annually. The segment carries higher margins than hardware products, helping lift Apple’s overall gross margin into the high-40% range.

Meanwhile, products such as the Apple Watch and AirPods have strengthened Apple’s ecosystem and helped grow its active device base to more than 2.5 billion.

Another major contributor to Apple’s investment growth has been its aggressive capital return strategy.

Over the years, the technology giant has spent hundreds of billions of dollars repurchasing shares, reducing shares outstanding to about 14.6 billion. 

The share count has fallen by roughly 40% from peak levels, boosting earnings per share and increasing the value of remaining shares.

Although Apple pays a dividend, the yield remains modest at around 0.33% to 0.34%, with a payout ratio near 12%. Most shareholder returns have instead come from stock appreciation and share buybacks.

Cook’s background in operations and supply-chain management also helped Apple navigate challenges including the pandemic, inflation, and global trade disruptions. 

The company expanded manufacturing capacity, diversified parts of its production footprint beyond China, and maintained strong profitability throughout the period.

Apple leadership transition  Apple announced in April that Cook will become executive chairman, with longtime hardware chief John Ternus set to take over as CEO on September 1.

Ternus inherits a company valued at about $4.67 trillion but faces growing pressure to strengthen Apple’s position in artificial intelligence. 

While Cook’s tenure was defined by operational discipline, services growth, and shareholder returns, investors expect Ternus to place greater emphasis on product innovation and AI.

Apple’s September 9 product event will be the first major launch under Ternus’ leadership, with investors watching for updates on the company’s AI strategy and future growth plans.

Featured image via Shutterstock

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Apple has quietly done something none of its Magnificent 7 peers have managed in 2026. It has become the AI winner that spends the least on AI. While Alphabet plans $175 billion to $185 billion in 2026 capex and Microsoft just posted $115.95 billion in full-year capital spending, Apple is riding a 22% iPhone cycle, a reimagined Siri, and a memory-cost story into fresh highs.

Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) is $361.66 over the next 12 months, implying 16.91% upside from $309.35. Our confidence is high.

24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $309.35 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $361.66 Upside 16.91% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% How the Capex-Light Narrative Took Over Apple stock has returned 38.06% over the last year and 14.1% year to date, though shares have cooled 4.99% in the last month after tagging a 52-week high of $344.27.

The July 30 fiscal Q3 print was the catalyst. Revenue of $109.4 billion grew 16.36%, EPS of $2.02 beat estimates by 6.8%, and iPhone revenue jumped 22% to $54.3 billion. That marked Apple’s ninth consecutive EPS beat. A viral Reddit post captured the shift, noting “Apple’s capex is 1.8% of revenue, Alphabet’s is 37.5%”. Investors are re-rating Apple as the AI beneficiary without the balance-sheet risk.

Why Bulls See a Breakout to $377 Tim Cook called Siri AI “a completely reimagined version of Siri that is profoundly capable, deeply personal, and integrated seamlessly across our platforms.” He added, “I have never been more optimistic.”

The install base topped 2.5 billion devices, Services hit a record $30.7 billion, and Apple committed $600 billion to U.S. investment plus a $30 billion Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) silicon deal. Prediction-market traders now price 85% odds on a foldable iPhone before 2027. Our bull-case scenario points to $377.13, roughly 22% upside.

What Could Go Wrong Memory costs are the sharpest risk. Cook described DRAM pricing as “a 100-year flood on the memory pricing with exponential increases”.

September-quarter gross margin guidance of 47% to 48% is well below Q3’s 50.1%, and Q3 included a one-time tariff-refund tailwind worth roughly $0.11 of EPS. Insider activity has skewed net selling. That said, bulls would counter that supply constraints reflect “an incredibly strong iPhone and Mac product cycle“, not weakness. Our bear-case scenario lands at $313.60.

How Apple Compares to Microsoft and Alphabet Apple trades at a P/E of 40, well above Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) at 27. Microsoft posted 17.8% revenue growth with Azure at 43%, but its $115.95 billion capex bill is the exact overhang Apple avoids.

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) grew Q2 revenue 24.2% with Google Cloud up 82%, yet posted negative free cash flow of $5.85 billion because of AI capex.

All of that spending has to land somewhere, which is the whole reason we mapped the power, cooling, and networking suppliers behind the buildout in a free AI infrastructure report. Apple’s ROE of 171.42% and free-cash-flow yield of 2.19% justify the premium. The peer group makes our 24/7 Wall St. price target look reasonable.

Apple Price Prediction 2026-2030 My verdict is buy at a 24/7 Wall St. price target of $361.66 with 90% confidence. The key factor is capital efficiency in an AI cycle where peers are drowning in capex.

Conviction strengthens if Siri AI adoption translates into a measurable Services acceleration by the December quarter. I would stay on the sidelines if September gross margin lands below the 47% low end of guidance.

Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $325 2027 $362 2028 $405 2029 $455 2030 $508 These projections assume Apple monetizes Siri AI through iCloud+ and defends Services growth. Significant upside could come from a foldable iPhone launch or a China rebound. Downside could stem from a prolonged DRAM shortage or regulatory action on the App Store.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

On Tuesday, Aug. 18, Apple (AAPL -0.63%) announced new business terms for apps in the European Union, cutting its standard App Store commission from 30% to 26% and replacing its most contested fee with a simple 5% commission. Developers can sign the new terms now, and the changes take effect Oct. 1.

The company said the changes follow "close collaboration with the European Commission" and "resolve Apple's disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution."

That last part is the news that matters for shareholders. The lower rates will leave more revenue with EU developers. But for Apple, the bigger event is the defusing of a regulatory fight that had already produced a 500 million euro fine and threatened more. Here's a look at the new rates -- and how much money is actually at stake.

Image source: Apple.

The new rate cardThe standard commission on EU App Store sales drops to 26%, from 30%. Apps using alternative payment processing pay 20%, and apps that link out to the web to complete purchases pay 15% on sales made within seven days of the tap. Members of Apple's Small Business Program, along with its Mini Apps and Video Partner programs, pay 15%, as do auto-renewing subscriptions after their first year. Those eligible apps pay 10% when they use alternative payments or link-outs.

The bigger structural change is the Core Technology Commission. Apps distributed outside the App Store (through rival marketplaces or the web) now pay a flat 5% commission on digital sales. That replaces the per-install Core Technology Fee -- the charge developers and regulators had contested most fiercely. The new terms also eliminate two other charges (an initial acquisition fee and a store services fee), and for the first time in the EU, developers can offer Apple's own payment system alongside alternatives in the same app.

In short, the fee sheet got shorter and cheaper. And that is what Brussels wanted.

The fight this defusesThe Digital Markets Act has been the tech giant's noisiest regulatory problem for two years. In April 2025, the European Commission fined the company 500 million euros (about $579 million) for preventing developers from steering customers to cheaper offers outside the App Store, and escalating penalties remained possible as the compliance arguments dragged on.

On Tuesday, the two sides stepped back from the fight. "The Commission welcomes Apple's changes to their business terms," the EU executive said in a statement, adding that it will monitor how the new terms are implemented.

Of course, a welcome is not a closed case, and the Digital Markets Act doesn't go away. But a dispute with a regulator that fines in the hundreds of millions has gone quiet -- Apple says its disagreements are resolved, and the Commission says it will watch how the new terms work in practice. That changes the risk attached to Apple's highest-margin segment.

Sizing the hitNow for the money. Apple's services segment produced $30.7 billion of revenue in the fiscal third quarter of 2026 (the period ended June 27), up 12% year over year and a record for the June period. Growth cooled a bit from the fiscal second quarter's 16% pace, but even the slower rate adds more than $13 billion of new services revenue a year to a business already running at an annual pace above $120 billion.

The App Store sits alongside everything from iCloud storage to Apple TV inside that segment, and the EU slice of it is smaller still. Asked about earlier European changes on a 2024 earnings call, Apple's then-chief financial officer Luca Maestri said the EU market "represents roughly 7% of our global app store revenue."

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Set those figures side by side, and the four-point cut shrinks quickly. It applies only to the standard tier (small developers and second-year subscriptions already sit at 15%), and only in a region generating about 7% of App Store revenue. Even assuming every EU transaction took the full four-point cut, the hit would be a sliver of a services business growing 12% a year -- and a rounding error against the $29.8 billion of net income Apple earned last quarter. And that's the worst case. The real hit would likely be smaller.

So where does that leave the stock?

Shares trade around $311 as of this writing, about 10% below their record high. I'd argue Tuesday's announcement nudges the investment case in Apple's favor, if anything, because the stock's valuation was never resting on four points of EU commission. What Apple bought this week is a quieter fight and a simpler fee structure, in a region the company had already sized as a small piece of the App Store. The services business keeps growing either way.

When Tim Cook became CEO of Apple (AAPL -0.63%) in 2011, one of his biggest strategic shifts was returning capital to shareholders. He reinstated the company's dividend in 2012 and, more importantly, launched a massive stock buyback program.

Apple has spent more than any other company on stock buybacks over the last 10 years, according to research by The Motley Fool. Here's a closer look at how much it has spent and why this benefits shareholders.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Apple's stock buybacks during Tim Cook's tenure Cook has been part of multiple record-breaking share buybacks while CEO of Apple. Near the beginning of his tenure, the board authorized a $10 billion buyback for its fiscal 2013, but later raised that to $60 billion, the largest single share-repurchase authorization in history. It authorized repurchases of $100 billion in 2018 and $110 billion in 2024, with the latter still being its largest-ever buyback. In 2025 and 2026, it authorized $100 billion in buybacks.

A buyback authorization only means a company can spend up to that amount, not that it will. Apple normally uses most of it, though, and has bought back a whopping $877 billion in shares under Cook's leadership.

A (mostly) positive move for Apple shareholders After Apple buys back shares, it retires them. With fewer shares in circulation, every shareholder owns a larger slice of the company. Over a quarter or even a year, this is a relatively minor change. At Apple's market cap of $4.6 trillion (as of Aug. 19), a $100 billion repurchase authorization means buying back a little over 2% of the company.

But for a long-term investor, it makes a significant difference. Case in point, when Cook took over, Apple had about 26 billion split-adjusted outstanding shares. It reported 14.6 billion outstanding shares as of July 2026, so the share count has fallen by about 44%. A share purchased at the start of Cook's tenure now owns nearly 80% more than it did then.

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The caveat here is that Apple's valuation has risen significantly since the early days of its buyback program. It traded between 12 and 18 times earnings for much of the 2010s. It trades at 36 times trailing earnings as of this writing, while Apple and other top tech stocks have seen considerable price appreciation. Buying back shares at a higher valuation means less added value for shareholders.

Apple's repurchase program was a major tailwind for most of Cook's tenure. However, John Ternus will become the company's new CEO on Sept. 1, 2026, and the leadership transition could also signal a shift in strategy. Buybacks will remain part of Apple's approach, but the company may divert some of that capital to research and development or building through acquisitions. Given Apple's somewhat expensive valuation, either could prove a better growth driver than buying back shares.

Americká technologická společnost Apple loni v Irsku na daních zaplatila 17 miliard dolarů (zhruba 350 miliard Kč). To představovalo 40 procent celkové částky, kterou firma odvedla na dani z příjmů po celém světě. Vyplývá to z účetních výkazů podniku, na které dnes upozornil britský list Financial Times (FT). Platbu výrazně zvýšilo rozhodnutí Soudního dvora EU z roku 2024, podle něhož měl Apple doplatit Irsku na daních 13 miliard eur (313 miliard Kč).

Apple podle výkazů loni celosvětově zaplatil na dani z příjmů právnických osob 43 miliard dolarů. Nejnovější údaje byly zveřejněny na základě nových pravidel EU, která velkým firmám ukládají zveřejňovat výnosy, zisky a daně z příjmů v jednotlivých členských zemích a ve vybraných daňových rájích.

Společnost uvedla, že dlouhodobě patří mezi největší daňové poplatníky na světě. Zároveň upozornila na rozdíl mezi daní z příjmů vykazovanou v zemích, kde jsou držena aktiva, a nepřímými daněmi, například DPH, placenými v zemích, kde sídlí zákazníci.

Přibližně čtvrtina globálního zisku před zdaněním, který Apple vykázal za finanční rok do září 2025, byla vykázána prostřednictvím irských společností, ačkoli v Irsku pracují přibližně tři procenta zaměstnanců Applu. Firma tam zaměstnává 5575 lidí a sídlí tam její evropská centrála.

Irsko v minulosti přilákalo řadu velkých amerických společností nízkými daněmi a systémem, který umožňoval přesouvat zisky do daňových rájů prostřednictvím struktury známé jako double Irish (dvojitá irská). K postupnému zrušení tohoto systému Dublin přistoupil v roce 2015.

Irsko podle rozhodnutí soudu EU poskytlo v letech 1991 až 2014 Applu ve formě daňových úlev protiprávní státní podporu, bylo proto povinno si ji od firmy nechat vrátit. Irská vláda hned po rozsudku oznámila, že zahájí proces uvolňování peněz ze svěřenského fondu, na němž byly požadované finance od Applu uloženy.

Řada velkých amerických firem přesto v zemi působí nadále. Irsko nyní uplatňuje sazbu korporátní daně 12,5 procenta a v roce 2024 podle FT tři firmy, za které jsou obecně považovány Eli Lilly, Apple a Microsoft, odvedly téměř polovinu všech korporátních daní vybraných v zemi.

Apple said on Tuesday that it would change its rules for app developers in the European Union, in a bid to end a long antitrust dispute with regulators there over how the company manages its App Store.

Starting in October, Apple will remove several fees for those developers and take a smaller cut than its standard 30 percent from in-app purchases, with rates depending on how apps are distributed and payments are processed. Apple will also allow developers to offer payment methods aside from its own and to distribute apps via the internet, and will permit more companies to create third-party app stores.

The changes follow years of antitrust scrutiny for Apple and the App Store, from the United States to Brazil to South Korea. Regulators have said Apple uses the digital marketplace to crush competition, and developers have complained about the company’s high fees and strict rules. The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, has been among the most aggressive enforcers.

“These changes resolve Apple’s disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution,” Apple wrote in a blog post. “They also reduce complexity by moving every developer that distributes apps in the EU to a single set of business terms.”

The commission said it welcomed Apple’s changes to the App Store and would monitor how they were carried out.

In 2022, the European Union enacted the Digital Markets Act, a law meant to increase competition in the digital economy. In April last year, the European Commission fined Apple 500 million euros ($570 million at the time), saying the company had violated the law by limiting how developers could communicate with customers about sales and other offers. Regulators also ruled against Apple for restricting access to third-party app stores on its devices.

Apple said on Tuesday that it would also introduce protections for younger users in the European Union.

Users under 18 will need parental approval for in-app purchases that use alternative payment methods or take place on the internet. Users under 13 will not be able to make in-app purchases via the web.

Apple
AAPL -0.15% 96

is facing pressure from the U.S. government over plans to source memory components from Chinese suppliers, adding another complication to the company's efforts to secure chips amid tight global supply.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump administration does not support Apple purchasing memory from Chinese manufacturers. He also indicated that the government has urged the company to expand its domestic manufacturing operations.

Apple has been evaluating memory supplied by China-based ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, for potential use in products including iPhones and MacBooks, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company is not prohibited from purchasing commercially available components from Chinese suppliers, although some transfers of product information require U.S. licensing.

The issue comes as artificial-intelligence demand puts pressure on the broader memory market. Apple's shares closed at $305.26 on Aug. 14 and rose 0.22% during the session. The company had a market capitalization of about $4.46 trillion, while its forward price-to-earnings ratio stood at 34.77.

The administration has also encouraged Apple to shift more manufacturing activity to the U.S., potentially adding supply-chain costs and execution challenges as the company evaluates alternative sources for memory components.

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At $305.93, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) looks overvalued. The stock rallied hard off winter lows, but fundamentals are quietly weakening in ways the multiple cannot absorb.

Apple remains the most profitable consumer electronics business on the planet, with a $4.46 trillion market cap, a 2.5 billion device installed base, and Services revenue that hit $30.7 billion last quarter. iPhone drives roughly half of revenue, and the ecosystem around it funds one of the largest capital return programs in market history.

Shares climbed from $271.12 at the start of the year to a July high above $340 on a strong June quarter, then faded. That beat was partially manufactured by temporary tailwinds, and the setup into the October earnings report looks materially worse.

Why the Bull Case Still Has Teeth Apple delivered its ninth consecutive EPS beat, posting $2.02 on $109.42 billion in revenue, up 16.4% year over year. iPhone revenue grew 22%, Mac grew 29%, and Tim Cook called it the “strongest June quarter ever, with double-digit revenue growth across iPhone, Mac and Services, and in every geographic segment.”

Capital efficiency is unmatched. ROE sits at 171%, ROIC at 53%, and management authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback. The all-new Siri AI rollout at WWDC26 gives Apple a plausible AI-cycle upgrade catalyst without the 37.5% of revenue capex burden peers are carrying.

Why the Bear Case Is Winning The June headline was propped up by one-time items. CFO Kevan Parekh disclosed that tariff refunds gave gross margin a two percentage point benefit and EPS an 11 cent lift. Strip those out and Apple merely met the midpoint of its own guide. Cook described memory pricing as a “100-year flood… with exponential increases,” and Apple has already reluctantly raised prices on iPad and Mac.

Guidance confirmed deceleration. September revenue is guided to 9% to 11% growth, Services below 10%, and gross margin is projected at 47% to 48%, down from the tariff-inflated June earnings report. Valuation leaves no room: P/E of 35, forward P/E of 32, PEG of 2.5, and a free cash flow yield of 2.21% against risk-free rates. Insider activity shows net selling, and the Q3 earnings report was met with a 7.35% single-day decline despite the beat.

The Case for Sitting Tight Apple still gushes cash, and holders sitting on long-term gains have valid tax reasons to defer. If Siri AI drives a genuine upgrade super-cycle, forward estimates move higher and the multiple looks defensible.

The wait-and-see argument hinges on the October earnings report. If Apple offsets memory inflation without gutting product margin, and if Services reaccelerates above 10%, the bear thesis loses its edge. A repeat of the June reaction, where a 6.8% beat triggered a hard selloff, would validate that expectations have outrun the business.

What the Data Actually Says Apple trades at $305.93, against a consensus analyst target of $322.28, implying modest single-digit upside. Coverage skews positive, with 6 Strong Buy, 22 Buy, 14 Hold, 2 Sell, and 2 Strong Sell ratings across 46 analysts. Shares are up 12.84% year to date, trailing the S&P 500‘s 13.85%, and are down 6.5% over the past month while the index rose 2.85%. Apple is lagging the market it once led.

Prediction markets echo caution. Polymarket traders assign only a 28.5% probability to a new product line before 2027, and 30-day sentiment has fallen 15.7 points.

Why $305 Looks Overextended At $305.93, Apple looks overvalued.

The path to downside runs through the October 29 earnings report. Consensus is anchored to guidance that bakes in tariff refund tailwinds fading, memory costs escalating, and supply constraints Cook warned would “increase significantly” sequentially. If margin compresses harder than the 47% floor management flagged, a stock priced at 32 times forward earnings has nowhere to hide.

The Q3 reaction, a 7.35% same-day decline on a 6.8% beat, showed that at this multiple, beats alone no longer move the stock higher. Average one-day post-earnings performance across the last ten straight beats is -1.16%. Buyers are paying growth-stock prices for a hardware business decelerating into a margin squeeze.

What invalidates the Sell thesis: a clean October beat with expanding product margins, Services reaccelerating above 12%, and tangible Siri AI monetization. Absent those, capital compounds better elsewhere. When a $4.5 trillion company misses the S&P by a mile and trades at 35 times earnings on decelerating revenue, the risk/reward skews unfavorable at this multiple.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Posted by Defense World Staff on Aug 16th, 2026

Asset Dedication LLC trimmed its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Free Report) by 25.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 71,879 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 24,681 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises approximately 1.3% of Asset Dedication LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Asset Dedication LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $18,242,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AAPL. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. now owns 24,386 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,189,000 after purchasing an additional 3,014 shares during the period. Eaton Cambridge Inc. raised its position in Apple by 21.3% in the first quarter. Eaton Cambridge Inc. now owns 13,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,545,000 after purchasing an additional 2,450 shares during the period. Torren Management LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,178,000. Summit Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 108.3% during the first quarter. Summit Wealth Partners LLC now owns 34,989 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,880,000 after buying an additional 18,188 shares during the period. Finally, Adventist Health System Sunbelt Healthcare Corp purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth $105,482,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Trading Up 0.2% NASDAQ AAPL opened at $305.93 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $223.78 and a 52 week high of $344.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $308.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $285.19.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $109.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.04 billion. Apple had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 135.46%. The company’s revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.57 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 8.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 10th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is 12.39%.

Insider Activity In other news, insider Ben Borders sold 116 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.14, for a total transaction of $34,236.24. Following the sale, the insider owned 38,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,425,754.82. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, SVP Jennifer Newstead sold 1,439 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.75, for a total value of $442,852.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 40,107 shares in the company, valued at $12,342,929.25. This trade represents a 3.46% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Apple Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

Positive Sentiment: Apple is reportedly training a China-specific large language model with Alibaba’s support. The initiative could bring Apple Intelligence to Chinese users, improve Apple’s competitive position against Huawei and reduce reliance on third-party AI models in a key market. Apple trains China-specific AI model Positive Sentiment: Apple opened an advanced manufacturing center in Houston that will support AI-server production, Mac mini assembly and workforce training. The facility reinforces Apple’s U.S. investment plans and may improve supply-chain resilience and relations with policymakers. Apple opens Houston manufacturing facility Positive Sentiment: Apple reportedly received about $2.2 billion in tariff refunds. The cash recovery could offset some trade-related expenses and support near-term earnings and cash flow. Apple tariff refund report Positive Sentiment: Apple is discussing usage-based content agreements with publishers to improve the upgraded Siri’s access to current information. A stronger Siri could help narrow Apple’s perceived AI gap and support future services growth. Apple publisher talks for Siri Neutral Sentiment: Apple proposed a 15% commission on purchases made through external links in iOS apps amid its continuing legal dispute with Epic. The proposal could preserve some App Store revenue, but the final regulatory and legal outcome remains uncertain. Apple proposes external purchase commission Neutral Sentiment: Apple’s valuation remains demanding, with a market capitalization near $4.5 trillion and a forward earnings outlook that leaves the stock sensitive to execution. An insider sale by SVP Jennifer Newstead was disclosed, though such transactions do not necessarily indicate a change in corporate fundamentals. Apple insider sale Negative Sentiment: Jefferies downgraded Apple, citing concerns about the canceled or delayed all-glass iPhone concept, limited near-term AI momentum and rising memory-chip costs. Higher component prices could pressure margins and make it harder for Apple to justify its premium valuation. Jefferies Apple downgrade and iPhone concerns Negative Sentiment: Google’s Pixel 11 is placing Gemini more deeply into the smartphone experience, raising the competitive stakes for Apple ahead of the iPhone 18 launch and Siri’s broader overhaul. Analysts Set New Price Targets AAPL has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, July 31st. DZ Bank downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Maxim Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 price target (up from $310.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective (down from $253.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $328.60.

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Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, software and services. Over its history Apple has evolved from personal computers to a broad portfolio that spans mobile devices, wearables, home entertainment and digital services.

Apple’s principal hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, Mac personal computers, Apple Watch wearable devices and a range of accessories such as AirPods and HomePod.

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After trying and failing to delay the matter, Apple on Thursday submitted its proposal for the commissions it wants to charge on purchases made using external links inside apps on its iOS devices.

In a new filing in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, Apple proposed new commissions of 15% for standard apps, with further discounts for developers who are enrolled in special Apple programs.

Under the proposed structure, small business developers would pay a 5% commission on payments, while those in the Video Partner Program, News Partner Program, and Mini Apps Partner Program would pay 10%. Subscription renewals would also be reduced to 10%, the filing states.

The iPhone maker has been engaged in a years-long legal battle with Epic Games over its alleged anti-competitive policies regarding App Store commissions, and had been attempting to stall its answer to the court’s request for this part of its commission structure.

Apple tried to argue that these lower court proceedings should wait until the Supreme Court ruled on another matter related to the case: whether or not Apple was in contempt of a court order when it imposed a new 27% commission on purchases made through external links, and imposed rules that restricted how developers could present those links to customers.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Apple’s bid to pause further action in the lower court’s case, forcing the company to reveal its planned commission structure.

Apple’s position is that it should be permitted to charge fees on in-app purchases made by users of its devices as a means to recoup its investments in the tools, technology, and services that allow it to maintain its App Store and software.

The company also compared its link-out fees to those on Google Play, which charges 20% link-out rates for standard apps, 15% for apps in special programs, and 10% for subscription renewals, noting that Epic Games had agreed to these rates.

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At $305.26, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) is a Hold. The stock hovers just above its fundamental floor in the $280 to $300 range, with a genuinely balanced setup.

Apple remains the world’s most valuable consumer technology company, with a $4.41 trillion market cap anchored by iPhone, growing Services annuity, and one of the most aggressive buyback machines in the market. After rallying to a 52-week high near $344, shares pulled back to their 50-day moving average of $309.48, with the 200-day at $280.09 sitting exactly where the floor thesis lives.

The June-quarter earnings report showed $109.4 billion in revenue, up 16% year over year was strong. Yet the stock is down 2.96% over the past month.

The Bull Case: A Trillion-Dollar Buyback Sink Under A Software Multiple Bulls argue Apple has quietly become a software-margin business wearing hardware clothing. Services generated $30.7 billion at a 75.6% gross margin, pulling total company gross margin to 50.1%. That is annuity-like economics investors will pay up for.

Apple repurchased $62.09 billion in stock across the first nine months of FY2026, on top of $90.71 billion in FY2025 buybacks. That constant float compression puts an automatic bid under the stock near $280. Layer in Siri AI, which management called an “off the charts” product, and the AI ecosystem thesis gives bulls a multi-year narrative.

The Bear Case: A 34x Multiple Meets Memory Inflation And Supply Shocks The bear case starts with valuation. At 35x trailing P/E and a 32x forward P/E, Apple trades like a hyper-grower while guiding to only 9% to 11% revenue growth next quarter. The PEG of 2.486 and 42x price-to-book leave zero room for a stumble.

Margin risk is quantifiable. Tim Cook described memory pricing as a “100-year flood” with September-quarter memory costs even higher than June’s. Roughly 2 points of Q3 gross margin and $0.11 of EPS came from one-time tariff refunds. Strip that out and the beat looks routine. Supply chain leverage tilting toward vendors, illustrated by the CXMT pricing standoff, means margin expansion is not guaranteed.

The Hold Case: A Floor That Holds, A Ceiling That Grinds Neither side clearly wins at $305. The floor is real: buybacks, Services mix, and installed base of more than 2.5 billion active devices defend the low end. But upside is narrow. Analyst consensus sits at $322.28, implying only modest room to run.

Prediction markets echo the pinning dynamic. Polymarket traders assign a 98.5% combined probability to Apple closing August between $280 and $296, with just 25% odds of clearing $336. The range holds.

What The Data Says Apple trades at $305.26, up 12.59% year to date and 31.31% over the past year. That YTD figure roughly tracks the broader S&P 500, and Apple’s one-year return has outpaced the index.

The $322.28 analyst target implies roughly 6% upside. Of 46 covering analysts, 28 rate the stock Buy or Strong Buy, 14 Hold, and 4 Sell or Strong Sell. Valuation runs rich at 34x trailing earnings and 9.45x sales, while the full-chain put/call ratio of 0.42 shows options traders leaning bullish.

The Verdict: Waiting For The Next Catalyst At $305.26, Apple is a Hold.

The floor thesis is intact. Aggressive buybacks, expanding Services mix, and growing installed base defend the $280 to $300 range. But at 32x forward earnings against 9% to 11% near-term revenue growth, upside requires Siri AI to prove itself as a monetizable catalyst rather than a demo.

Specific triggers to watch: A Buy re-rate would require Siri AI monetization traction through iCloud Plus upgrades, memory costs peaking, and iPhone 18 momentum through the holiday. A Sell decision would come if September gross margin lands below the 47% floor, supply constraints deepen beyond forecast, or Services growth slips below the guided sub-10% cadence.

The cost of patience is a modest 6% opportunity cost to the analyst target. The cost of acting prematurely is chasing a stock priced too highly into a quarter management already flagged as one they will be “scrambling on the supply side” to deliver. Until Siri AI or memory costs break the standoff, standing pat is the sharpest call.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Posted by Defense World Staff on Aug 13th, 2026

Bull Harbor Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 27,746 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $7,042,000. Apple comprises 1.9% of Bull Harbor Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 1,800.0% during the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter worth $65,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $69,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $76,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

More Apple News Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

Positive Sentiment: Apple is testing DRAM chips from China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) for iPhones and MacBooks and has discussed potential supply arrangements. Diversifying memory suppliers could reduce shortages and limit cost pressure, although geopolitical and quality-control risks remain. Apple’s CXMT Bet Could Strengthen Its Memory Supply, But Risks Remain Positive Sentiment: Apple is reportedly in talks with publishers to license content for an AI-powered Siri. Access to current, high-quality information could improve Siri as Apple prepares a major AI-focused iPhone software update. Apple in Talks to Pay Publishers to Improve AI-Powered Siri Positive Sentiment: Apple’s latest quarter remained strong, with revenue up 16.4% year over year and earnings exceeding consensus estimates. Some investors also view the recent pullback as an accumulation opportunity, while Crake Asset Management reportedly increased its Apple position. Neutral Sentiment: Apple hired former American Airlines executive Nate Gatten to lead government affairs, highlighting the importance of tariffs, regulation and White House relations. The appointment could improve policy execution but also underscores heightened political risk. Apple Hires Former American Airlines Executive to Lead Government Affairs Neutral Sentiment: CEO Tim Cook is expected to hand leadership to John Ternus on September 1, while Apple Pay and Wallet chief Jennifer Bailey plans to retire in October. The transitions create execution uncertainty but may also mark a planned leadership refresh. Negative Sentiment: Jefferies cut its Apple rating and price target, questioning whether the company has sufficient iPhone and AI momentum to justify its premium valuation. The firm also cited supply-chain concerns about a high-end all-glass iPhone and weaker average-selling-price growth. Apple Stock Falls After Jefferies Slashes Price Target Negative Sentiment: Memory shortages driven by AI demand are raising Apple’s bill of materials and could pressure margins or force additional iPhone price increases. Google’s new Pixel 11 lineup also intensifies competition in AI-enabled smartphones. Apple additionally faces a class-action lawsuit alleging that its iCloud+ privacy claims misled consumers. Insider Activity at Apple In related news, insider Ben Borders sold 116 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.14, for a total value of $34,236.24. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 38,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,425,754.82. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes AAPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded Apple from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. KeyCorp reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, June 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (down from $370.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Apple from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, April 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $328.60.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Apple

Apple Price Performance NASDAQ AAPL opened at $302.25 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $309.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $284.64. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $223.78 and a 52-week high of $344.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market cap of $4.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.66, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.09.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $109.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.04 billion. Apple had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 135.46%. The business’s revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.57 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 8.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 13th. Investors of record on Monday, August 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.39%.

Apple Profile (Free Report)

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, software and services. Over its history Apple has evolved from personal computers to a broad portfolio that spans mobile devices, wearables, home entertainment and digital services.

Apple’s principal hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, Mac personal computers, Apple Watch wearable devices and a range of accessories such as AirPods and HomePod.

Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Apple GE Vernova’s AI Power Boom Faces a Profit Test Cardinal Health Earnings: Can Perfection Get Priced In Twice? Nebius’ Q2 Beat Shows the AI Bottleneck Is Capacity, Not Demand Legacy Jet Builders Stall While Embraer Accelerates to New Highs Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AAPL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Free Report).

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