Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) remains one of Jim Cramer’s favored holdings, with shares climbing 35.8% over the past year and 14% year-to-date.
The consumer electronics giant has faced mounting pressure in 2026 due to a global memory chip shortage driven by the surge in AI data center construction.
That shortage forced Apple to raise prices earlier this year, and media reports have indicated the company is exploring purchases of memory chips from Chinese firm CXMT.
Cramer addressed the situation directly on August 17th, defending Tim Cook’s leadership and pushing back against criticism of the company’s sourcing decisions.
“Apple has Tim Cook in Texas opening still one more manufacturing, American manufacturing program,” Cramer said, adding that the company was being “hammered” over its memory procurement while actively creating American jobs.
Cramer further noted that memory is “the most jacked up price,” pointing out that Meta and Google are also buying from the same constrained supply, making Apple’s efforts to keep phone prices manageable all the more difficult.
The broader debate surrounding Apple continues to center on whether its AI initiatives can spark a meaningful new hardware replacement cycle, particularly for the iPhone.
Apple’s June quarter financials offered considerable support for the bulls, with iPhone revenue jumping 21% to $54 billion and total revenue rising 16.4% to $109 billion.
Cramer has previously highlighted that Apple achieved this growth while keeping capital expenditures at a modest $11 billion annually, a figure that underscores the company’s operational efficiency.
However, the Services segment, long a pillar of Apple’s growth story under Cook, showed signs of strain, generating $30.7 billion in revenue against analyst expectations of $31.2 billion.
iPad revenue also disappointed, falling 5.9% to $6.1 billion against estimates of $6.9 billion, while the wearables business added further weight to concerns about segment diversification.
The combined weakness across Services, iPad, and wearables raises the risk that Apple could become increasingly dependent on iPhone performance to sustain its overall growth trajectory.
Hedge fund sentiment has remained broadly stable, with 169 funds tracked by Insider Monkey holding a stake in the most recent quarter, compared to 170 in the prior period.
Apple’s forward price-to-earnings multiple of 32 sits at the high end of its ten-year historical range, reflecting the premium valuation investors continue to assign the company.
Short interest remains negligible, standing at just 0.97% of the float as of the end of July, suggesting that institutional skepticism toward the stock is minimal despite its elevated multiple.
