{"id":4537,"date":"2026-07-30T10:42:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:42:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:42:31","slug":"flirting-with-5-trillion-apple-has-never-been-more-valuable-or-a-riskier-bet-for-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4537","title":{"rendered":"Flirting with $5 trillion, Apple has never been more valuable\u2014or a riskier bet for investors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Still, the recent moonshot in Apple\u2019s stock poses a tough choice for folks and funds mulling a purchase right now, or tempted to sell and profit from the recent windfall on fears it will fade: Apple\u2019s just become something it seldom was before, extremely, even scarily, expensive.<\/p>\n

Read more Hollywood\u2019s \u2018memory moment\u2019: How Spider-Man vs. The Odyssey is driving the box office\u2019s best summer since the pandemic<\/a><\/p>\n

The recent liftoff makes Apple by far the priciest member of the Mag 7, of course excluding Tesla. Its price-to-earnings ratio reached 41.2 on the \u201c$5 trillion day,\u201d between 37% and 145% above the figures for Nvidia (30.2), Amazon (27.7), Meta (21.6), and Alphabet (16.8). Historically, Apple\u2019s handed shareholders significantly more cents for every dollar in earnings than it provides today. From 2013 to 2020, its PE never exceeded 20, and averaged around 16. Even post-Covid, its multiple fluctuated around a median of 28, and as recently as the close of Q1, 2024, sat at 26.4.<\/p>\n

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In fact, from early 2022 to Q1 of 2024, Apple\u2019s EPS flatlined, and so did its share price, leaving its PE well below 30. Profits barely budged until mid-2025, then accelerated, rising 25% on a trailing, four-quarter basis through Q1 of 2026. But in that span, its stock broke free, doubling from $170 in Q1 of 2024 to today\u2019s $350. That huge divergence where the shares waxed at four times the rate of profits drove its PE to the current, vertiginous 41-plus.<\/p>\n

Apple is a buyback machine, and at these prices, shareholders are getting a lot less bang for their buck<\/h2>\n

Apple depends heavily on share buybacks to raise its EPS. In fiscal 2024 and 2025 (ended September 30) it spent $185 billion in repurchases, equal to 92% of its GAAP net earnings. When its PE was 25, Apple was raising EPS 4 cents, or 4%, for every dollar in buybacks. But at a 41 multiple, it\u2019s lifting per share profits by much less, by 2.4 cents and a like percentage.<\/p>\n

Read more Forget robots on assembly lines. Foundational Industries wants AI to run the entire factory<\/a><\/p>\n

Hence, investors face two headwinds. First, they\u2019ll get much less lift from buybacks than in the past, a puny one in fact for the simple reason that Apple will be repurchasing not cheap but ultra-costly shares. Second, it\u2019s highly unlikely that Apple\u2019s PE will remain at 41. That\u2019s almost 50% over the S&P 500\u2019s already elevated average, and just look at where its Mag 7 confreres are sitting. If its multiple drifts back to 30 over the next five years, Apple will need a 5% annual push from a combination of repurchases and earnings expansion just to stay even, to maintain its share price at current levels. Put simply, at these prices, Apple must find a big new growth engine to drive its stock price higher.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s business is doing fine, but its stock is doing stupendously. That big split\u2019s the rub that makes Apple a much less shiny investment. <\/p>\n

Read more Mamdani\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre tax was designed to hit the wealthy, but it\u2019s sending most New Yorkers to their estate lawyers<\/a><\/p>\n

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At 41 times earnings, Apple’s stock is pricier than it’s been in a decade\u2014and its famous buyback machine is losing its punch just when investors need it most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple"],"yoast_head":"\nFlirting with $5 trillion, Apple has never been more valuable\u2014or a riskier bet for investors - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4537\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flirting with $5 trillion, Apple has never been more valuable\u2014or a riskier bet for investors - 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