Goldman Sachs’ List Of Stocks Popular With Mutual Fund Managers: Top 20 Stocks

3. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of  Mutual Funds: 31

Number of Hedge Fund Investors in Q2 2024: 184

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a consumer technology company that is a global giant. Its best selling and most valuable product is the iPhone lineup. The iPhone is responsible for 52% of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s sales, and the firm’s hypothesis is dependent on its ability to generate stable revenue through regular upgrade cycles. Its resources, as evidenced by a whopping $28.3 billion in cash and equivalent also mean that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is able to continuously innovate its product lineup. The biggest example of this is the MacBook lineup where the firm has successfully replaced x86 processors made by Intel with its custom chips. This has allowed Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to de link its supply chain from an unreliable partner and benefit from tighter ecosystem control. However, the firm’s reliance on the iPhone means that if the phone disappoints, its shares tumble. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock lost 3% in mid September after an analyst note speculated that 2024 iPhone sales were lower over its predecessor over the year ago comparable period.

Baron Funds mentioned Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q2 2024 investor letter. Here is what the firm said:

“Recent Activity This quarter we re-initiated a position in Apple Inc., a leading technology company known for its innovative consumer electronics products like the iPhone, MacBook, iPad, and Apple Watch. Apple is a leader across its categories and geographies, with a growing installed base that now exceeds 2 billion devices globally. The company’s attached services – including the App Store, iCloud, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Pay – provide a higher margin, recurring revenue stream that both enhances the value proposition for its hardware products and improves the financial profile. Apple now has well over 1 billion subscribers paying for these services, more than double the number it had just 4 years ago. The increasing services mix has led to healthy operating margin improvement, providing more free cash flow for Apple to reinvest in the business and to distribute to shareholders. Throughout its 48-year history, Apple has successfully navigated and capitalized on major technological shis, from PCs to mobile to cloud computing. We believe the company’s leading brand and device ecosystem position it to do equally well in the AI age, and this was the driver of our decision to re-invest. “Apple Intelligence” – the AI strategy unveiled at Apple’s recent Worldwide Developer Conference – leverages on- device AI and integrations with tools like ChatGPT to enhance user experiences across its ecosystem. The AI suite enables users to create new images, summarize and generate text, and use Siri to perform actions across their mobile applications, all while maintaining user privacy and security. We think Apple Intelligence can drive accelerated product upgrade cycles and higher demand for Apple services. The combination of growth re-acceleration, increasing services contribution, and thoughtful capital allocation should continue driving long-term shareholder value.”