The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, has sold more than $50 million in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares, although AAPL stock prices have been in the green since early May.
To be more precise, an SEC filing revealed that Cook sold 223,986 shares on October 2 for a combined total of $50,276,076 — amounting to $224.46 apiece.
The stock is trading at $225.54 at press time, having risen by 0.98% on the daily chart, and is up 21.50% year-to-date (YTD).
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Is Cook’s sale a bearish signal for Apple?
Cook’s sale naturally drew attention, particularly as it was executed at prices close to AAPL’s July 16 all-time high of $243.82, just 8.6% shy of that price point.
Questions arise as to whether Cook is acting on information he is privy to as CEO that the wider public is not — as such an occurrence would be a bearish sign.
However, rules and regulations, while they have often failed to meaningfully curb political insider trading, have a much better track record when it comes to company insiders.
Sales like these have to be planned and filed well in advance to avoid impropriety. In this particular case, the section titled ‘Remarks and Signature’ in the same SEC filing reveals that Cook’s sale dates back to a 10b5-1 plan adopted on May 21, four and a half months ago — a point at which the stock was barely in the green on a year-to-date (YTD) chart, trading at a price of $192.35.
Ultimately, this is in no way a bearish signal — traders must turn to other sources to attain an informed view of Apple’s prospects.
AAPL stock future outlook
Although general consensus among investors, retail and institutional alike, is bullish, Apple is not without its detractors.
While the company is widely expected to reach a $4 trillion valuation in 2025, others posit that rivals like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) represent a better buying opportunity — or that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) or Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) will reach the vaunted $4 trillion mark sooner than Apple.
Underwhelming preorder and sales figures for the new iPhone 16 should also be noted — although even equity analysts who maintained price targets, such as Atif Malik of Citi (NYSE: C), expect that lead times will continue to stabilize and that demand will pick up in the following months.
Jim Cramer echoed this sentiment — harkening back to the many times that early iPhone sales reports seemed disappointing, only to pick up serious momentum soon after.
Still, while expectations are largely positive, traders should keep in mind ongoing issues — regulatory troubles, such as having to pay $14 billion to the Irish government in back taxes and the recent opening of Apple’s hitherto hermetic ecosystem through third-party app stores should not be forgotten as they could serve to diminish AAPL gains.
