How Apple Stock Continues To Impressively Outperform
Apple stock (AAPL) - Get Free Report ended the trading session of Thursday, November 17, higher by 1.3%.
The number, in isolation, does not mean much. What is most impressive is that the gain (1) was much better than the S&P 500’s modest loss for the day, and (2) adds to Apple’s impressive track record against the US equities benchmark.
Today, we look at some interesting data that shows how Apple investors have been faring so much better than the average investor in the stock market.
Figure 1: How Apple Stock Continues To Impressively Outperform
Read more: Apple Stock: Expect Tough Love From Wall Street
AAPL: lavish outperformer
Apple stock is back above $150 apiece, after an unusual climb on Thursday: AAPL jumped more than 1% when the S&P 500 finished the session in the red by 0.3%.
The single-day outperformance of 1.6 percentage points or more is somewhat rare. Over the past five years, it has happened only once every 10 trading days or two calendar weeks, on average. See the histogram below.
Figure 2: Histogram: AAPL's daily performance vs. the S&P 500.
data from Yahoo Finance
But even less common is for AAPL to move higher by this much on a market day that was overwhelmingly bearish. All four major stock indices, also including the Dow, Nasdaq, and Russell 2000, dipped for the day.
AAPL being up by more than 1% while the S&P 500 declines for the day has happened less than 4% of the time over the past five years. That is: a once-in-a-five-week period occurrence.
Whatever time period one chooses to look at, Apple has been performing better than the broad US market index:
- 2.8% better in the past five trading days
- 2.7% better in the past calendar month
- 5.2% better in the past six months
- 16.0% better in the past year
- 17.6% better (cumulative) in the past two years
- About 200% better (cumulative) in the past five years
Apple stock: why so bullish?
It is hard to tell exactly why Apple stock had such a better Thursday than the rest of the market. Even its FAAMG peers were left in the dust. Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Free Report, just shy of flat for the day, came closest to matching Apple’s performance.
Over a longer time period (say, anywhere from YTD to three years), Apple’s impressive run can be mostly explained by the following:
- A strong brand and product portfolio that has been keeping demand afloat in 2022, despite a tighter monetary environment and recession worries;
- A general market belief that Apple could be a good “inflation play” in a year of rising consumer prices;
- Some benefits from the stay-at-home economy of 2020 and 2021, which helped to support demand for tech devices and related services – think games and streaming;
- Product launches, particularly within the iPhone (5G models) and Mac (M1 and M2 chips) segments, that seem to have struck a chord with consumers.
Ask Twitter
Apple stock is beating the S&P 500 on a 5-day, calendar month, YTD, two-year and five-year bases. Why do you think this is, primarily?
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(Disclaimers: this is not investment advice. The author may be long one or more stocks mentioned in this report. Also, the article may contain affiliate links. These partnerships do not influence editorial content. Thanks for supporting the Apple Maven)
