Apple (AAPL) Stock Declined as Smartphone Demand Dropped

Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC, an investment management company, released the “Mar Vista Focus strategy” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The S&P 500 index had the best first-quarter performance since 2019—enthusiasm over AI, robust corporate earnings, and anticipation of rate cuts fueling the rise in stock prices. The strategy returned +5.53% net-of-fees in the first quarter compared to +11.41% and +10.56% returns of the Russell 1000 Growth Index and the S&P 500 indexes. Kindly check the top 5 stocks of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.

Mar Vista Focus strategy highlighted stocks like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is an American multinational company that designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories. The one-month return of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was 11.23%, and its shares gained 14.91% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 14, 2024, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock closed at $212.49 per share with a market capitalization of $3.258 trillion.

Mar Vista Focus strategy stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

"Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock was pressured in the quarter as investors fretted over softening demand for smartphones, regulatory action from the US Department of Justice, and the Chinese government mandates restricting iPhone use by government officials. Despite these near-term headwinds, we continue to believe the company remains competitively advantaged and benefits from the Apple ecosystem, which has an installed base of over 2 billion devices and over 1 billion paying subscribers. We believe the Apple ecosystem will support a more predictable cash flow stream, which should grow intrinsic value high-single-digits over our investment horizon."

A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in 9th position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 150 hedge fund portfolios held Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at the end of the first quarter which was 131 in the previous quarter. Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) trailing 12-month revenue was $381.62 billion and its year over year quarterly revenue growth rate was -4.30%. While we acknowledge the potential of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we discussed Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and shared the list of best hardware stocks according to hedge funds. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.