FM-CCP7

Running Head: APPLE INC. 2

APPLE INC. 2

Apple Inc.

Financial Management (FIN 3301)

July 27, 2021

Apple Inc. is listed in the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (Nasdaq Global Select Market), and its ticker symbol is AAPL. According to Friedman et al. (2021), Apple Inc. listed stocks in the Nasdaq in the 1980s and has been on the list to date. According to Yahoo Finance (2021), Apple Inc. recorded the lowest stock price at 39.44 on December 1, 2018, and the highest stock price at 149.15 on July 14, 2021. The average stock price during the three years was 63.54. The company has registered an increase in stock performance in the three years, generating an increase in revenue. Apple Inc. recorded its last stock split on August 30, 2020, with a split factor of 4:1 (Yahoo Finance, 2021). The split stock boosted the stock liquidity. The company recorded outstanding shares of 16.67 billion in December 2020, 17.54 billion in December 2019, and 18.92 billion in December 2018, according to YCharts (2020), and in August 2018, Apple Inc. filed an amendment that led to an increase in the number of common shares authorized to issue from 12.6 billion to 50.4 billion. The overall trend in the stock activities of the company indicates that the company has continuously performed well in the stock market. According to Hernandez-Alvarez et al. (2019), the historically positive baseline drift and the historical values of the last 250 trading sessions of Apple Inc. present a superior performance. The company recorded its lowest stock price in 2018 and has continuously improved to make its highest stock price in 2021, showing that it is performing significantly well in the last three years (Yahoo Finance, 2021). Apple has recorded positive stock and dividends factors making it a favorable investment for any investor. Tashanova et al. (2020) support this argument by explaining that the company was slightly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic lowering its stock price, and this made an opportune moment for investors to buy stocks since the company has positive stock and dividends factors. This suggests that the highest likeliness is that any investments made on the stocks during this time may yield a high later.

Would invest in Apple Inc. based on the stock activities evaluations because it has recorded continuous improvements in the stock activities performances in the last three years, and this suggests that the company has a higher probability of reliable performance. Hernandez-Alvarez et al. (2019) has supported the positive performance of Apple, illustrating that the company has had superior performance in stock activities for the past 250 trade activities it has participated in. Additionally, the company has depicted steady and reliable positive stock and dividends factors that make the investments viable. According to Yahoo Finance (2021), the company has continuously generated a positive dividend factor and has not made losses to shareholders in the recent past financial statements. This makes Apple Inc. a good place to invest, and I would not hesitate to do so.

Apple Inc. is doing well according to past stock activities; however, Microsoft, its biggest competitor in the industry, has shown robust performances that exceed that of Apple in all aspects. According to Friedman et al. (2021), Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corporation have been listed in Nasdaq for a lengthy period. Microsoft recorded the highest stock price of 289.67 in July 2021 and the lowest stock price of 91.27 in March 2018. Compared to Apple, which recorded the highest stock price at 149.15 in July 2021 and the lowest stock price at 39.44 in December 2018, Microsoft's stock price is higher than Apple's (Yahoo Finance, 2021). Apple Inc. recorded its last stock split on August 30, 2020, with a split factor of 4:1, while Microsoft had its last stock split in February 2003, with a split factor of 2:1, indicating that it has not made any stock splits in the last three years (Yahoo Finance, 2021). Microsoft prides 7.53 billion outstanding stock while Apple marks a higher outstanding stock at 16.67 billion currently.

References

Friedman, A., D'Silva, V., & Fusaro, R. (2021). Taking stock: Catching up with Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman. The McKinsey Quarterly. https://search.proquest.com/openview/5bfed6cf6b2f823b00eaabf66ff98868/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=30375

Hernández-Álvarez, M., Hernández, E. A. T., & Yoo, S. G. (2019, February). Stock Market Data Prediction Using Machine Learning Techniques. In International Conference on Information Technology & Systems (pp. 539-547). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-11890-7_52

Tashanova, D., Sekerbay, A., Chen, D., Luo, Y., Zhao, S., & Zhang, T. (2020). Investment opportunities and strategies in an era of Coronavirus pandemic. Available at SSRN 3567445. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3567445

Yahoo Finance. (2021). Stock Market Live, Quotes, Business & Finance News. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/history?period1=1469491200&period2=1627257600&interval=1mo&filter=history&frequency=1mo&includeAdjustedClose=true

YCharts. (2020). Apple shares outstanding | AAPL. https://ycharts.com/companies/AAPL/shares_outstanding