Apple Investors: Who's Involved?

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is a global technology company that designs, manufactures, and sells smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories. Apple stock has become an obsession for investors, turning into a must-own investment. As of January 2023, Apple's market cap closed below $2 trillion for the first time since 2020. However, in 2022, Apple's market cap reached a historic milestone, becoming the first company ever to achieve a $3 billion market cap.

According to portfolio-monitoring site SigFig, nearly 17% of all individual investors own Apple shares—a percentage three times higher than that of another widely held stock, Google. Apple investors, on average, have nearly 17% of their portfolios riding on that one stock, and it is the top holding of almost every type of investment style.

The top shareholders of Apple are Arthur Levinson, Tim Cook, Jeff Williams, The Vanguard Group, BlackRock Inc. (BLK), and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A). As of February 2, 2021, Levinson, the chair of the board since 2011, owns 4.5 million shares of Apple stock, while The Vanguard Group owns 1.3 billion shares, representing 7.8% of total shares outstanding.

Apple's stock performance over the last 20 years

Apple's stock performance has been impressive over the last 20 years, with the company's market capitalisation reaching historic milestones. In January 2022, Apple became the world's first $3 trillion company during intraday trading, having already been the first to reach $1 trillion and $2 trillion.

Apple's annual revenue has been consistently growing, and in 2022, its market cap reached a historic high of $3 billion. The company's revenue has grown from $158.8 billion in 2014 to $383 billion in its 2024 fiscal year.

Apple's stock price has also seen significant growth. As of July 2024, the stock price was around $210, with the 52-week high being $220.20 and the 52-week low being $164.07. This is a remarkable increase from June 2004, when the stock price was around $6.

The performance of Apple's individual business segments varies. While the iPhone remains Apple's primary business, the Services portfolio, including cloud services and Apple Music, has become the company's cash cow. Additionally, non-iPhone devices like the Apple Watch and AirPods have gained significant traction, with Apple dominating the wearables and hearables markets.

Overall, Apple's stock performance over the last 20 years has been exceptional, with the company consistently reaching new heights in terms of revenue, market capitalisation, and stock price.

Apple's biggest shareholders

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is the world's second-largest company by market value. It designs, manufactures, and sells consumer technology devices like smartphones, tablets, personal computers, and wearables. As of March 2024, the company's market cap was about $2.64 trillion. Apple's revenue streams have expanded beyond its hardware products, with the company growing its cloud services business and offering streaming entertainment services like Apple TV+ and Apple Music.

The ownership structure of Apple stock is a mix of institutional, retail, and individual investors. According to TipRanks, approximately 48.25% of the company's stock is owned by institutional investors, 0.11% is owned by insiders, and 51.64% is owned by public companies and individual investors. Here is a detailed look at Apple's six biggest shareholders:

The Vanguard Group

The Vanguard Group, a mutual fund and ETF management company, was Apple's top shareholder as of January 2024, with more than 1.27 billion shares representing 8.27% of total shares. Vanguard owned the most shares of Apple stock among all institutional investors.

Arthur Levinson

Arthur Levinson, the chair of Apple's board since 2011 and a co-lead director since 2005, was Apple's top individual insider shareholder as of January 2024, with over 4.5 million shares. Levinson has served on all three board committees: audit and finance, nominating and corporate governance, and compensation. He is the former chair of Genentech Inc. and the founder and CEO of Calico, a biotech company.

Tim Cook

Tim Cook, who became Apple's CEO in 2011 after the death of founder Steve Jobs, owned 3,280,053 shares of Apple stock as of January 2, 2024. Before becoming CEO, Cook held several key positions at Apple, including Chief Operating Officer and head of the Macintosh division.

Jeff Williams

Jeff Williams, the Chief Operating Officer at Apple, owned 489,817 shares of Apple stock as of January 2, 2024. Williams oversees Apple's global operations and the development of the Apple Watch and health initiatives. He joined Apple in 1998 and has held various roles.

BlackRock Inc. (BLK)

BlackRock, a mutual fund and ETF management company, owned 1.029 billion shares of Apple, representing 6.66% of total shares outstanding as of January 2, 2024. BlackRock's iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) is one of its largest ETFs.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A)

Led by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway owned more than 915 million shares of Apple, representing 5.92% of total shares outstanding as of January 2, 2024. Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified holding company with investments in insurance, railroads, utilities, and more. The company reported almost $36 billion in earnings as of September 30, 2023.

Apple's revenue and net income

Apple's revenue is primarily driven by its flagship product, the iPhone, which has been the company's main source of revenue since 2008. In the 2022 fiscal year, Apple surpassed $200 billion in iPhone revenue for the first time, hitting $205 billion. iPhone sales account for approximately 50% of Apple's overall revenue in recent years.

In addition to iPhone sales, Apple has expanded its service revenue by growing its cloud services business and digital content streaming services such as Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade. This services business generated $85.2 billion in net sales for FY 2023, up 9% from the previous year.

Apple's net income for its 2023 fiscal year, which ended on September 30, 2023, was $96.995 billion, a slight decline of about 1.8% from 2022. The company's net income for 2022 was $99.803 billion. Apple's net income and revenue for 2023 were impacted by a challenging macroeconomic environment, which affected sales of iPhones, Macs, and wearables.

Apple's stock splits

Apple (AAPL) is the second-largest company in the world by market cap. Since its inception in 1976, Apple has become a symbol of knowledge, power, and wealth.

Apple has split its stock five times in its history:

• June 16, 1987: 2-for-1 split
• June 21, 2000: 2-for-1 split
• February 28, 2005: 2-for-1 split
• June 9, 2014: 7-for-1 split
• August 31, 2020: 4-for-1 split

When a company like Apple splits its shares, the market capitalization before and after the split remains stable. Shareholders own more shares, but each is valued at a lower price. A lower stock price per share can attract a wider range of buyers, and if demand increases, the share price can appreciate, leading to a rise in the total market capitalization post-split.

Leadership teams implement stock splits to manage the company's stock price. Apple's management team initially aimed for a reset to around $50 per share, but the last two splits have resulted in higher prices in or near the low $100s.

Apple's stock price as of March 13, 2024, was $173.23, with an intraday market cap of $265.1 trillion. This is about half the price when the company announced its last split in 2020, a 4-for-1 exchange.

Analysts rate Apple stock as a moderate buy, and it is unlikely that Apple will split its stock in 2024.

Apple's competitors

Samsung

Samsung is Apple's main rival in the mobile handset market. Samsung has maintained control of 20-30% of the handset market, while Apple's share is closer to 13%. Samsung also has approximately twice the number of employees as Apple, giving it the capacity to cope with a shift in consumer appetite away from iOS and towards Android operating systems. Samsung manufactures the display for Apple's iPad.

Microsoft

Microsoft is another tech giant that competes with Apple in the devices segment, software and application development, and gaming platforms. Microsoft is large enough to be able to go toe-to-toe with Apple in these areas.

Google (Alphabet Inc)

Google has the critical mass and market position to pose a serious threat to Apple. Its Android operating system is a direct challenger to Apple's iOS, and Google Play is a like-for-like competitor to iTunes. Google also owns and licenses its Android operating system to firms such as Samsung.

Amazon

Amazon has shown greater resilience than Apple to the risks posed by inflation. The diversity of income streams at Amazon is greater, with web-hosting services (AWS) and its core online sales platform offering a greater degree of future-proofing than Apple’s suite of consumer-facing products. Amazon is also willing to go head-to-head with Apple, as seen with the Kindle Fire and Amazon's smartphone handsets. Amazon’s video streaming services also encroach onto Apple territory, to the extent that the two companies have stopped enabling the streaming of each other's services on their respective platforms.

Lenovo

China-based Lenovo Group is a PC and mobile handset manufacturer that offers consumers high-quality, competitively-priced devices. Their product range is a direct threat to Apple, which has sales based to a large extent on brand loyalty.

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