We recently published a list of Top 10 AI News You Shouldn’t Miss. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other top AI news you shouldn’t miss.
JPMorgan Asset Management’s Kerry Craig said in a latest program on CNBC that investors are looking beyond the top AI companies amid valuation and spending concerns following the launch of DeepSeek. The analyst said he remains bullish on the “secular theme” of AI and believes there are still opportunities for the market.
“I think playing it now through the market could be a little bit more of less around the hyperscalers and the producers of this technology and then thinking a little bit further along the AI value chain so the users of this technology, the software companies, maybe utilities, and thinking about energy providers and those further opportunities that may be a little bit better valued when it comes to the prospects and the equity market and where you might see better upside. It’s very difficult to keep repeating these very large returns we’ve seen across these names for the last couple of years.”
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For this article, we picked 10 AI stocks currently making moves on the back of the latest news. 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 158
Dan Niles, Niles Investment Management founder and portfolio manager, said in a latest program on CNBC that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is facing competition issues from other companies and it has a high multiple despite lower growth.
“This is a company that has grown revenues 5% over three years, so you have to think about that and go, how well are they really doing? They grew revenues 3% last year, and that wouldn’t be a problem except the fact that you’ve got a stock that’s trading at 31 times versus the S&P at 22 times. Every year, people are counting on an upgrade cycle, and the problem is they’ve got competition issues and they’re losing market share in China, which is a big problem. The AI rollout has been slow, and what they’re offering people aren’t really all that excited about. And that’s why you’ve got these really slow-growing top lines. The question is, can they get out of that? To some degree, DeepSeek, which came out, means that, hey, you know, costs are dropping a lot on the hardware side. Maybe that ends up helping Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), where they can free ride on some innovations that others have done, like ChatGPT in the US or DeepSeek in China. But for right now, that’s the situation you’re in: a low-growth stock with a high multiple.”
Apple’s 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.
The September 2024 launch of the iPhone 16, with its groundbreaking AI capabilities, including enhanced image generation tools, marks another inflection point. We believe this transformative device is the foundation for an AI-driven supercycle and could entice approximately 100 million consumers to upgrade, reinforcing Apple’s leadership in the industry.
Today, Apple’s ecosystem spans over two billion active devices, supported by a rapidly-growing base of subscription services. This strategy has helped to turbocharge customer engagement and spending. In the most recent fiscal year, which ended in September 2024, Apple’s high-margin services division accounted for 39.3% of total gross profits, up from 32.8% just two years ago.
Apple’s financial footing remains exceptional, with approximately $50 billion in net cash and marketable securities. Looking ahead, we expect earnings-per-share growth to outpace revenue growth, driven by margin expansion and continued share buybacks.”
Overall, AAPL ranks 5th on our list of top AI news you shouldn’t miss. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL, 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.