Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of Jim Cramer’s favorite stocks. Even though the firm has decided to take a back foot when it comes to playing in the AI race, the CNBC TV host has asserted on multiple occasions that it is an “own it, not trade it” stock. Naturally, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also a part of our list of 10 Blue Chip Stocks Jim Cramer is Crazy About. In his morning appearance on August 24th, the CNBC TV host discussed the impact of the memory supply shortage on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s shares:
“Apple’s going up, on stories, that they’re going to be able to get Chinese DRAMs. Would lower the price. It’s something Tim Cook has told me, multiple times. That it would be great to be able to lower the price of the cellphone if we could get a hold of the Chinese DRAMS. Obviously the DRAM supply and memory storage supply, is very constrained. . .well, we don’t know if the story’s true or not. But we do know that Apple very vehemently says we gotta get a hold of Chinese memory. Because, there’s just not enough made in America. Now it’s absolutely true there isn’t. But I was in a plant where they’re working six days a week eight [inaudible] hours, just to be able to get the plant done so the things come out in the first quarter of ’27. But it just doesn’t matter. Your price of your cellphone is going up unless we do this. . .”
The debate for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), as always, is focused on its massive user base and AI initiatives. The former factors into Cramer’s remarks. Higher memory prices have forced the firm to raise prices across all of its products. On the bullish side, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s latest earnings saw the firm post solid figures for its user base. The firm’s iPhone revenue jumped to a record of $54.3 billion while its Mac sales surged by 29% to $10.35 billion. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Services revenue also set a June quarter record of $30.7 billion. Management also sought to appease the AI hawks and pointed out that Siri AI would roll out to 2.5 billion active devices to hint at a potential upgrade cycle for the iPhone 17.
Yet, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s September quarter revenue growth guide of 9% to 11% was below consensus estimates of 12%. The concerns about growth come at the wrong time as the firm is operating in an industry facing DRAM memory chip shortages to drive prices and impact margins. These troubles come just as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) trades at a forward P/E ratio of 32.89, which leaves little room for error.
Combining the viewpoints with hedge fund sentiment, in Q2, Insider Monkey’s data shows that 169 funds had held a stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) which was similar to the 170 funds in Q1. Among the notable jumps was ExodusPoint Capital whose stake grew by 984% to $493 million, while Two Sigma Advisors and Viking Global exited their stakes.
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Disclosure: None.
