Apple Remains the World’s Greatest Stock

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 8, 7:30AM EST

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Apple Remains the World’s Greatest Stock — © Mario Tama / Getty Images News via Getty Images

Wall Street looked at recent Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) earnings and was concerned. iPhone sales were modestly weak, compared with past torrid growth. There are concerns about China, the largest smartphone market in the world. Year to date, shares are higher by 40%, handily outperforming the market. And Apple stock is up just shy of 5% in the past five days, which has outperformed the market as well. Why?

Apple still has a stronghold on the high end of the smartphone market worldwide. Its forecast for the next quarter was modest. However, Apple is far from being knocked off its position on the top of the pyramid. iPhone sales for the most recent quarter totaled $43.9 billion, up slightly from the same period a year earlier. (These iconic gadgets have shaped our lives since the 1950s.)

However, the spectacular news about Apple is its rapidly growing services operations. Revenue rose to $22.3 billion, up from $19.2 billion in the quarter a year ago. This includes the App Store, Apple Pay, Apple Card and subscriptions to Apple TV+, Apple Music and iCloud. Apple’s installed base of 2 billion worldwide drives that revenue. That base is a massive platform to which it does and can sell its services.

Apple’s services businesses could eventually grow to match iPhone revenue. Cloud storage is now the norm for both people and companies. Apple TV+ may compete with Netflix. Amazon and others. However, Apple has well over $100 billion on its balance sheet. Its ability to compete in the business is based on the installed hardware base and its ability to create programming using huge budgets.

Apple is the most valuable brand in the world and has been for almost a decade. As Apple releases new products and services, this advantage cannot be underestimated. Over the past five years, Apple stock is up 256%, compared to 60% for the market. With a growing services business, that run is not over.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.