Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is having a strong day in the market and the gains are understandable. Billionaire investor, Warren Buffett invested a large amount of money in the company. However, is Buffett making a mistake here? Today, we'll talk about the investment made, why I believe it's a mistake and what we can expect to see from AAPL moving forward.
Warren Buffett Sinks Money Into AAPL
When billionaires invest, the general investing population tends to follow. However, this one is pretty interesting. You see, for quite some time now, Buffett has been an Apple skeptic. So, it's a bit of a surprise that he would make such a large bet. In a recent SEC filing, it was disclosed that Warren Buffett's hedge fund, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa), acquired 9,811,747 shares of AAPL. That's a total value of $1.069 billion.
Did Buffett Make A Mistake?
I have to say that this investment is likely to prove to be a mistake. The reality is that Apple isn't in the best of places at the moment. In fact, the value of the stock recently took a dive due to a poor earnings report, and worse yet, the outlook for the current quarter isn't looking very positive either. The problem with AAPL is relatively simple. The company's flagship product just doesn't seem to be doing very well anymore. Sales of the iPhone are starting to decline, and for good reason. In fact, there are three of them!
- Price – The Apple iPhone is an incredibly expensive option for those looking to purchase smartphones. In the past, this made sense. The reality is that the iOS operating system has proven to be the favorite among consumers. That in combination with constant updates making the phones better and better have allowed AAPL to set an overwhelmingly high price point, and consumers have been paying it. However, recently, the tides have started to change. Sure, the iPhone is still the most popular, but with the high price, consumers are opting to stick with their older versions rather than purchasing updated versions of the phones, and that's causing sales to falter.
- Consumer Habits – Consumer habits are changing as well. In fact, there are more people buying what would be considered dumb phones today than there were last year, and that trend is likely to continue. With dumb phones coming with very low price points and high durability, it only makes sense that they are coming back in popularity. In fact, last year, US consumers purchased 24 million dumb phones, causing smartphone demand to fall a bit.
- Competition – Finally, when the iPhone was first released, and for years following, there was nothing that could compete with its features. However, these days, the iPhone isn't as special as it once was. There are tons of competitors that AAPL has to make its way around, and that's causing pain in sales as well.
What We Can Expect From AAPL
Moving forward, I have a relatively mixed opinion of what we can expect to see from Apple. In the short term, investor excitement is likely to keep the upward trend running. However, in the long term, I see more problems with sales causing issues with the value of the stock. As a result, I expect to see long-run declines on AAPL moving forward.
What Do You Think? Where do you think AAPL is headed and why?