We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Latest Calls: Top 10 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other top stocks that Jim Cramer discusses.

Jim Cramer recently talked about the impact of tariffs on the US stock market and mentioned some similar events from history.

“We know that the president, who loves tariffs, is now threatening to put tariffs on our trading adversaries that are as high or higher than the fabled Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 — yeah, the one that helped cause the Great Depression. The sellers are not oblivious to history, even with the White House is as they see Trump mimicking legendary president Herbert Hoover, who, despite endless diatribes by economists saying Smoot-Hawley could destroy the economy, championed and signed the bill in the name of — yes — the Working Man, especially the farmers. Exports dropped 60%, and we went into the worst depression in our nation’s history. Hoover regretted it, saying that they should be repealed in 1932 — way too late. I think the comparison is excessive, but you never want to be in the same sentence as Herbert Hoover, should you join the sellers.”

Cramer announced the end of Mag. 7 and said he’s buying low-multiple tech stocks, banks and industrials for his charitable trust.

“I would not jump back into the Magnificent 7 because, as of tonight, there is no mag. Came up with that name, scrapping it right now. No moniker fits the 2 or 3 that remain viable.”

READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In

For this article, we picked 10 stocks Jim Cramer has been talking about over the past few weeks. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 158

Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC mentioned the reasons behind the latest decline in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares. Cramer believes the threat of tariffs has been impacting Apple negatively.

“CEO Tim Cook committed to spending $500 billion in the United States over the next four years. Some are telling me that’s not a real narrative, but that’s wrong. They say it was planned ahead of time, and that’s wrong too. I say, who cares? The commitment is terrific. Hey, a lot of that could have gone to India, but Apple couldn’t get any sort of immunity. Of course not. They could be hurt by tariffs tomorrow, which seems wrong to me. Maybe that’s why Apple stock got hammered today. When I searched for any reason, any reason at all, the only explanation I could come up with was tariffs. Sure, Apple’s an American company, and it’s going to make a lot of things here, but it gets a substantial number of its parts from Taiwan and manufactures a huge amount of its products, like cell phones, in China. Because of the president’s somewhat arbitrary nature, it’s very hard to own Apple right now. You don’t know if the president is going to attach tariffs to Taiwan’s stuff or more tariffs than the People’s Republic of China. Are there any assurances he won’t? What will that do to Apple’s gross margins? Can it afford margin deterioration when the stock trades at 33 times earnings? That’s why the stock went down. These are the musings of someone who actually likes the stock very much, who says own it, don’t trade it, and thinks the company is sensational. I just cringe now when the president talks about this stuff again, not because I’m against tariffs—I’m in favor of tariffs, I like targeted tariffs.”

Apple’s latest quarterly results were helped by Services revenue in the latest quarter, but the key challenges haunting the company remain as they were. Many analysts believe just a few AI apps would not be enough to trigger a broader upgrade cycle for iPhone. Apple is dealing with currency headwinds as the stronger US dollar is expected to reduce top-line growth by 2.5% next quarter. For Q2 FY2025, management expects overall revenue to grow in the low to mid-single digits. Apple’s stock is trading at a premium valuation, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 39-40x, a price-to-free-cash-flow ratio of 33-34x, and a PEG ratio exceeding 3x. Upcoming quarters would be difficult for Apple and its current valuation is not justified.

Tsai Capital stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“We initiated our investment in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in 2016 and elevated it to a core holding in 2018, the same year the company introduced its redesigned 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models. Under Tim Cook’s visionary leadership, Apple has consistently redefined innovation in hardware and software.

The September 2024 launch of the iPhone 16, with its groundbreaking AI capabilities, including enhanced image generation tools, marks another inflection point. We believe this transformative device is the foundation for an AI-driven supercycle and could entice approximately 100 million consumers to upgrade, reinforcing Apple’s leadership in the industry.

Today, Apple’s ecosystem spans over two billion active devices, supported by a rapidly-growing base of subscription services. This strategy has helped to turbocharge customer engagement and spending. In the most recent fiscal year, which ended in September 2024, Apple’s high-margin services division accounted for 39.3% of total gross profits, up from 32.8% just two years ago.

Overall, AAPL ranks 2nd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.