Apple Inc (AAPL)

They will spend over $500 billion in the US in the next 4 years to manufacture in the US. Have faith in CEO Tim Cook, given his track record.

30% is too high, even the greatest stock of all time. Don't sell all of it, but gradually sell it down to 5% weight.

They generate $110 billion in free cash from services to buy back shares. Eventually they will get AI right. He trades this like crazy. Very positive.

Will be fine, if they could work with other companies to build AI into their products. Does it matter to earnings if they aren't the first out of the gate with applying AI? Not really. What matters is they make the best version of whatever anyone has made in the past three years. 

It leads the Mag 7 this week. The quarter was fine. In response to tariffs, they are moving some supply chains to Indonesia and Indian, away from China. Chinese phones are taking market share, but we've gotten past this news. Apple services were +14% this quarter and beat the top and bottom with an 8% growth rate. He will ride it up.

Global tech behemoth. His son always tells him that it's all about the ecosystem. That's what drives customer loyalty and recurring revenue. Innovation continues to drive earnings and customer loyalty. Services are where it's at on a go-forward basis. Apple Music is very high margin and recurring revenue, offsets sporadic cyclicality in hardware sales. 

AI initiatives offer good growth potential. Balance sheet is bigger than many countries combined. FCF generation very strong. Shareholder friendly initiatives. Sees 15% earnings growth going forward. High, high quality for long-term investors. Yield is 0.4%.

Suffers weak cell phone sales from China, no lift from AI, a surprise slowdown in service revenues, weak VisionPro sales and a lacklustre full-year forecast. That's all he's heard the last two weeks. Shares could very well fall despite low expectations, but don't dump the stock. Own, don't trade it. Amazing managers who will fix whatever goes wrong, and products are superb.

It has been a big selloff for AAPL over the past few weeks, as some analysts have downgraded the name and lowered their targets. Its growth profile has slowed, but it continues to be one of, if not the the strongest hardware companies in the world, and consumers continue to rely on their products. It is expensive on a valuation basis, but its recent price drawdown is not out of the norm for the name, and it continues to compound its share price at a good rate. It has a 3% buyback yield, and we could see some potential for upside growth surprises with its AI products or services segment in the future. We would be comfortable continuing to hold the name, given its industry strength and immense cash position. 
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He trimmed just the other day by about 25%. Still likes the company, just not the valuation.

Screens well. Fantastic balance sheet, loads of cash. Stock's performing decently. Probably won't see same earnings growth rate as other mega-cap names. Perhaps 10-15% growth, not bad, but other names are higher.

He's benchmark-weighted this name. It's dangerous to go against a stock that has this kind of cash balance. Also, they buyback shares on earnings. (Hit a record high today.)

He always says, own, don't trade this, but if you are overweight this, the sell it down to a 5% weighting in your portfolio.

It keeps rallying along with other big tech stocks. Just hit new highs. We can't live without their phones, because they are so great. He expects the current Dept. of Justice lawsuit against Apple for monopolizing phones will be overturned under the new White House. Today, Apple announce a new IOS. Shares are up 28% this year.

No, own it, don't trade it. Yes, it's expensive historically, but Apple tends to then issue good news. As for China, LULU just announced good numbers out of China, and the Chinese government will do some stimulus. Apple will get through this period. At least, hold Apple and see what happens.