Trade Tracker: Bill Baruch buys more Apple

I have in front of me and I don’t. I have on my on my fax set, home screen. OK, I Everything is red except for one name that that jumps out at you and it should jump out at you. This week it’s Apple because it’s coming off its best day since May of 2023. So we’re talking about nearly a year for shares of Apple, which been sleeping now for a long time. Wondering if they’ve now woken up 175 pushing 176. That’s been a minute since the stock has been above 170. It’s been like one 68169. You figure, OK, the chart looks terrible. It may be going down further, I don’t know, maybe not so much. Bill Baruch, he’s our committee member. Of course, he added to his position in Napoli, joins us now on the phone to talk about it. Why, Why was this the moment to do that? Hi, thanks for having me on. The, the thing that we we looked at was everybody’s made a really great point about the risks out there and how the puck is going to commodities and materials and we were prepared for that. In fact Apple was a casualty in preparing for that. So we were about half the benchmark, half the S and PS weighed in Apple and began trimming it when it was in the mid to high 180’s. The news yesterday I think is is what everybody has wanted from Apple this year that that hasn’t gotten it is is the innovation finally something new from Apple. I think that’s a very important point and and it held the October low. So what we’re doing is moving back to get to the benchmark wait the S&P is about 5 1/2% of of Apple. We’re now back above 4% from below 3% and I see myself I see us adding more. I think they’re they’re I like to buy things when they’re unloved and Apple has been unloved and if it does turn turn to have a good year there is some room for it to run on on a relative basis on the year and the outlier here is, is if we start to see spending and services pick up in China I think Apple could really pick up that as a tailwind as well. You think this week is an inflection point then for for these shares. I I do I think fundamentally from a from a narrative standpoint are are they innovating and then technically by holding that October low 160 to 170 is a big level for for Apple and it’s responded. I think you need to see buyers show up at that level. And they have. Yeah. I mean, this stock seemed like it was destined to maybe test 160 and and look, maybe it still will. But this is an interesting move to keep an eye on. We’ll kick it around on the desk. Bill, thanks. Good weekend to you. We’ll see on the set again soon. So Goldman weighs in on this today. They trim the price target. They go to 226 from 2:32. They do reiterate the buy though, Amy. They say any weakness is potentially an entry point. You know, Baruch obviously doesn’t use it as a full entry point for a new position. But he says, hey, stocks down, I’ll add to it. I think it’s a really hard call at this point. I still think Apple is expensive for the growth that it’s going to put up. You know even with the new innovation and new products it’s just so big it’s hard to grow that fast. It’s trading at 25 times. We own it. We’re underweight the stock. I think it’s it’s a great company whether it’s a great stock. I mean Steve and I were talking about it. We were on the desk together when on the show went across 3 trillion, it’s now 2-6 or two seven and every at that point everyone said it’s going straight to 4 trillion like dollar market cap. I think it’s fine, but it’s not something that we’re really looking to add to to generate a lot of alpha in the next year. If you own this for China, all the news headlines including today, it’s going the other way AMD, Intel, China doesn’t want using them anymore. China is pushing their domestic phone companies. So that continues to be a negative and a major overhang. There’s a reason why Apple manufactured 14% of their phones in India. It should be 100%. Those who have written off Kevin, as you know, Apple shares overtime, you know, have done so at their own peril. Because this stock has been amazingly resilient over time, because of the installed base, any perceived lack of innovation has been overlooked because whatever they missed initially, they’ve done better than most. Secondarily, now they have the AI story to look forward to in whichever Core ISI says that they expect. That story is going to unlock an iPhone super cycle. You’ve been, you’ve been adding to shares. Yeah, we’re buying, yeah, we’re buyers of Apple. I mean especially at these levels. I agree with what Bill said with the exception of China. I agree with Steve there that’s not part of our thesis, it’s not part of our narrative. But the the, the we exit the position November at 200. So I see these price targets going up to two 26232. If it just gets back to 200, we’ll be thrilled. But they have $100 billion of free cash flow over the past 12 months. It might not be the innovator, it might not be the growth engine that they print money. And we like that part. Hey, you’ve been, you’ve been burned it in periods of time of like, hey, if Apple gets down to at this certain level and then I’ll buy it and it never reached the level that you thought it might get to you and a lot of other people, right. I mean that’s just speaks to the resiliency of this name. Bill. Bill cites, you know what? What feels like it might be an inflection point this week. New innovation on chips now are you? Are you you want to get it? You want to get more negative on Apple ahead of AI? Yeah, I don’t want to get more negative. I’m not going to buy. And what I said to you, and this is consistent with what Bill said, is that holding that support at 168, which was that October or November low was very important. It did that this week. OK. And that is important. So the question is why not buy today? And I just go back to where I am on the market overall. It’s really that simple. I do intend to add to Apple, but I just find it very hard on a day like today, in a week like we’ve had to put any new capital to work. And so I’m just not going to do it. When you say a week like we’ve had, are you talking about for the overall market or for the overall market had where it’s for the overall market on the week for the overall market? Because obviously I’ll acknowledge and you’ll point out Apple has had a good week and may well have inflected folks. And when do you want to add to it then? I mean, if you say you don’t want to add to it on a down week, what are you going to add to it on a great week for the market? Well, no, what I’m saying, thank you, I’ll be more specific is I think the market’s going lower in the short term and I think Apple will get caught up in that. It’s been a nice week for Apple. I think Apple will get caught up in a downturn in the market of another 4 to 5%. Hey, if I’m wrong, I own shares, I may buy higher than here, I’ll live with it, OK. But right now, my gut, my experience in the market says the markets going lower from here and Apple with it.