Analyst on Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Challenges: Consumers Care More About Phone Camera Than AI
We recently published a list of Top 10 Stocks Market Is Watching Today. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other top stocks market is watching today.
Chris Grisanti, MAI Capital Management chief market strategist, said in a latest program on CNBC that the market is going through a shift towards value stocks from growth stocks.
“A lot of investors miss is that you have to choose a great company, but you also have to choose a great entry price. And the valuation, especially over the last several years, has really gotten out of whack as growth has outperformed value by the most ever that we’ve ever seen. So now we’re just kind of getting back.”
The analyst warned that the latest selloff is not the “healthy correction” we used to see in the past.
“The economically sensitive stocks leading the way down. You’ve got banks that are tanking, you got airlines that are tanking, the worst groups are the financials, the industrial, and the consumer discretionary like retailers. So this is the market saying economic slowdown. Now is it right? You know the old saw about the market predicting eight of the last two recessions—maybe it’s wrong. The problem is one, it’s different this time so people should pay attention, and two, what generally happens is things can fall even on irrational fears, and then they become self-fulfilling.”
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In.
For this article we picked 10 stocks Wall Street is currently focusing on. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers.
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 158
Jefferies said in a latest report that China’s smartphone market is slowing, and Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) new iPhone 16e is likely underwhelming.
A team of analysts led by Edison Lee said their findings show smartphone sales in China have weakened further, marking four straight weeks of declines following the Lunar New Year. The year-over-year drop is deepening, prompting steeper discounts last week on both iPhones, particularly the 16 series, and high-end Android models.
Lee believes consumers generally care less about AI than camera features. He does not see strong demand for iPhone e and said Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) may have to cut orders in the June quarter.
Apple’s latest quarterly results were helped by Services revenue in the latest quarter, but the key challenges haunting the company remain as they were. Many analysts believe just a few AI apps would not be enough to trigger a broader upgrade cycle for iPhone. Apple is dealing with currency headwinds as the stronger US dollar is expected to reduce top-line growth by 2.5% next quarter. For Q2 FY2025, management expects overall revenue to grow in the low to mid-single digits. Apple’s stock is trading at a premium valuation, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 39-40x, a price-to-free-cash-flow ratio of 33-34x, and a PEG ratio exceeding 3x. Upcoming quarters would be difficult for Apple and its current valuation is not justified.
Tsai Capital stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We initiated our investment in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in 2016 and elevated it to a core holding in 2018, the same year the company introduced its redesigned 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models. Under Tim Cook’s visionary leadership, Apple has consistently redefined innovation in hardware and software.
Overall, AAPL ranks 2nd on our list of top stocks market is watching today. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.