Despite experts predicting Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will enjoy strong performance in September and October due to its new iPhone launch and artificial intelligence (AI) integration, AAPL stock has undergone significant turbulence in recent weeks.
As is frequently the case for U.S. politicians, Senator Tommy Tuberville appears to have seen the issues coming. According to the filing made on September 13, he had already sold up to $50,000 worth of Apple shares in late August.
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The timing of Tuberville’s trade means he had managed to evade ‘The September Effect,’ which saw AAPL stock plunge from approximately $229 to about $222 in the first five days of the month and the subsequent iPhone-demand-driven decline.
The latter has been discussed extensively in recent days as reports demonstrating weaker-than-expected pre-orders for the iPhone 16 sent Apple shares from $222.23 on Friday, September 13, to $216.46 at the market’s close on Monday, September 15.
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The price action – and its underlying causes – came as something of a shock given that the expert consensus has been that the current smartphone cycle will be particularly strong for the technology blue-chip.
Wedbush’s Dan Inves, for example, went on record describing the launch of the new iPhone as the beginning of the imminent AI supercycle. He has, even after the sudden mid-September drop, maintained a bullish posture on both Apple and the current smartphone cycle.
Jim Cramer has, for his part, made an X post with almost an exacerbated tone, opining that the current AAPL stock downturn, like many that came before it, will likely end up being little more than a good buying opportunity.
Finally, though so many forecasts have been bullish, it may not be as surprising that Apple shares have been dropping in recent weeks.
For starters, ‘The September Effect’ – the phenomenon and self-fulfilling prophecy that stocks won’t perform well in September – has been affecting the entire market, and some experts, such as Tom Lee, have been issuing warnings that trading in the ninth and tenth months of the year is likely to feature a large and broad pullback.
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Tuberville flees stocks for the safety of bonds
Indeed, the general stock market struggles of September as well as the fact Tuberville sold Apple ahead of its late August highs indicates that, despite the popular perception of rampant insider activity, the trade may have just been a savvy move.
The same can be said for the Senator’s overall late August activities as he managed to remove more than $350,000 worth of shares from his portfolio before the brutal first week of September – a week that saw more than $1 trillion wiped from the stock market.
Still amidst the many sales of stocks, such as the United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), CVS Healthcare (NYSE: CVS), and Apple, Tuberville also made one purchase worth up to $100,000: American Funds The Bond Fund of America (ABNFX).
The purchase means that, along with evading substantial losses, the Senator is even slightly in the green, given that ABNFX is up 1.56% in the last 30 days.
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