Top 10 Trending Stocks to Watch Ahead of Nvidia Earnings

4. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 159

Daniel Newman, Futurum CEO, said in a CNBC program last month that there’s a lot of uncertainty among investors about Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) future amid the company’s lack of progress when it comes to AI. Asked what the biggest risk for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is, Newman pointed to the company’s AI strategy:

“The biggest risk is that they truly do not get this pivot to AI correct. They haven’t gotten infrastructure. They don’t have their own, you know, stack in terms of their development. They don’t have a tool. You’ve heard a lot of people come out. I came out six months ago and said to buy Perplexity. And I want to be very clear, Perplexity does not solve all of Apple’s AI wo at all. It’s an intent thing. It’s just showing that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) wants to build a product right now. You know, you try to use Siri and Siri’s a mess. I think we’ve talked about this before on the show and it wants to take you to OpenAI. What does it say when a company with Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) balance sheets that spent, what, 600 plus billion dollars on buybacks cannot make the investment, cannot lure in the type of researchers and build the kind of technology that has made it the company that it is today? I think it comes with real risk.”

Apple shares are up 6% over the past month. The company made headlines after the latest reports that it has decided to use Google Gemini to power Siri in the next upgrade. Apple’s quarterly results last month sparked new hope among investors. The iPhone maker’s revenue rose 9.6% year over year, with services revenue climbing 13.26% and product sales rising 8.20%. iPhone sales were up 13% year over year, rebounding sharply from 1.91% growth in the prior quarter, while Greater China sales improved to $15.369 billion, a 4.35% increase.

Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“We exited Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) based on several factors that we view as threats to its ability to sustain above-average earnings growth. Technology Innovators initiated a position in Apple in June 2024 based on the view that the combination of Apple’s integrated hardware, voice-activated assistant, and consumer data positioned the business well to deliver artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled personalized assistant capabilities and to collect tolls on the expansion of AI enabled applications that we expected to scale alongside computing power. Since then, we see limited evidence that Apple has effectively leveraged AI to accelerate device replacement cycles or reignite Services growth by enhancing developer-facing AI functionality.

Apple’s execution challenges are paired with demand headwinds in China, margin pressures, and challenges around search monetization. The company’s outward position on privacy and security adds another layer of complexity as we move to a more agentic generative AI paradigm where software executes tasks on behalf of consumers. Altogether, it’s increasingly uncertain how Apple will embrace this next paradigm shift while maintaining its position on privacy, fighting internal bureaucracy, and likely needing another reorganization around its internal AI research and development efforts. Considering these factors, we chose to exit Apple in favor of higher-conviction, duration-growth businesses.”