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Data updated 13 Oct 2026, 06:24 UTCSourcesMethodInformation Technology
Apple Inc.
Apple designs and sells smartphones, computers, tablets, and software to consumers and businesses worldwide.
Method classification
We classify the company against its sector by a fixed rule. This is not a price forecast or investment advice.
This describes business quality and price relative to the sector. It is not a return forecast. How we tested this
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3 of 5 met · sector composite in line with peers · vs 15 peers · 12 of 12 metrics
Quality and growth are here, but the SEC record doesn't confirm analyst optimism.
Business quality, valuation against the sector, and position in the 52-week range: whether they line up or not.
Strong fundamentals
Profitability
3/4
Debt & liquidity
3/3
Efficiency
2/2
Capital efficiency at Apple runs at a level the sector rarely sees: ROIC of 81.5% exceeds the sector median by 61.6 pp, and ROE of 171.4% outpaces the median by 140.9 pp. The F-Score of 8/9 and Debt/EBITDA of 0.7×, below the sector median by 8%, confirm that the balance sheet is in good order. The price paid for that quality is steep: the P/E of 38.6× sits above the sector median by 30%, and the P/B of 46.3× trades at 5.0× the median. Revenue growth of 6.4% trails the sector median by 6.0 pp, and FCF changed -9.2% year over year against a sector median of 25.7%: growth is not keeping pace with the multiple. The company has beat consensus in 7 of 7 recent quarters, yet consensus models faster EPS expansion than the realized three-year record in SEC filings shows, and the Forward-axis score of 43/100 reflects that gap.
Beat consensus in 7 of 7 recent quarters — the company clears estimates regularly (consensus is often set conservatively). In 1 more quarter the data sources (AlphaVantage and Finnhub) disagree, so it is not counted.
| Ticker | Name | F-Score | ROE | Revenue YoY | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | Apple Inc. | 8/9 | 171% | +6% | 32% |
The market prices in earnings growth; analyst sentiment is steady; has mostly beaten consensus.
Price against next year's expected earnings. The forward P/E already carries analyst optimism — read it alongside the “Versus consensus” line.
A forward P/E below the current one means the market expects earnings to grow; above it, to fall. The historical growth is realized figures from SEC filings, not a forecast.
The three-month change in the share of positive analyst ratings. This is sentiment, not an earnings-estimate revision, and not a call to act.
When Apple reports on 2 Nov 2026, track operating margin against the current 32.0% and revenue growth year over year. The F-Score profitability block sits at 3/4, so check whether the missing signal, asset turnover momentum, has improved.
In Apple's most recent 10-K on SEC EDGAR, review management's discussion of liquidity: the current ratio of 0.89 sits 33% below the sector median of 1.33, and the P/B of 46.3× is 5.0× the sector median. The risk factors section will explain how the company manages short-term obligations at that ratio.
Pick two or three companies from the Information Technology table and line them up by ROE and Op. margin. Apple's ROE of 171.4% is 140.9 pp above the sector median, so placing it alongside peers in those columns will show how much of that gap is sector-wide versus company-specific.
Steps you can check yourself, based on the figures in this brief.
Piotroski F-Score: nine binary tests of financial strength from the annual report. Each signal is stated as the word "yes" or "no".
Over 4 years: +20%-11%+9%-9%
Over 4 years: ——0.800.69
This is the share of stocks that lost 50% or more over 12 months (or were delisted for a reason other than an acquisition) among stocks with similar volatility over the prior year. Data 2017-2025, quarterly formation dates.
The range is two historical rates: one from a large-cap sample (S&P 500, 4,738 observations) and one from small and mid caps (S&P 600 and S&P 400, 21,263 observations); the lower and the higher of the two are shown. At most volatility levels the large-cap rate is the lower one, but above 61% volatility the order flips, and the large-cap sample there is very small.
Both rates are probably understated: 7-11% of observations had no price data (mostly delisted companies), and the large-cap sample is mostly current index members.
This is a historical frequency for a group, not a forecast for this company. Volatility predicted such falls only moderately (AUC 0.65 to 0.67).
Over 4 years: +8%-3%+2%+6%
The context on the right shows how each figure compares with the sector median. The trend below tracks the change over recent fiscal years.
Last quarter's EPS against consensus, plus the estimated date of the next report.
| ACN | Accenture | 4/9 | 26% | +7% | 15% |
| ADBE | Adobe | 7/9 | 55% | +11% | 37% |
| AMAT | Applied Materials | 6/9 | 36% | +4% | 29% |
| AMD | Advanced Micro Devices | 7/9 | 7% | +34% | 11% |
| AVGO | Broadcom | 8/9 | 31% | +24% | 40% |
| CRM | Salesforce | 7/9 | 12% | +10% | 20% |
| CSCO | Cisco | 7/9 | 27% | +12% | 24% |
| IBM | IBM | 6/9 | 35% | +8% | — |
| INTC | Intel | 6/9 | -0% | -0% | -4% |
| INTU | Intuit | 7/9 | 24% | +14% | 27% |
| MSFT | Microsoft | 6/9 | 34% | +18% | 47% |
| NOW | ServiceNow | 4/9 | 15% | +21% | 14% |
| NVDA | NVIDIA | 4/9 | 101% | +65% | 60% |
| ORCL | Oracle | 5/9 | 59% | +17% | 31% |
| TXN | Texas Instruments | 7/9 | 30% | +13% | 34% |
A sample of 16 companies in the sector including the target, alphabetical, unranked. Data from the latest SEC annual reports.
We classify the company against its sector by a fixed rule. This is not a price forecast or investment advice.
The last few quarters are recent context, not a fixed rate. Consensus for near quarters is set low, so companies clear it routinely; over long horizons the forecasts run the other way, too high.
It describes what the market and analysts expect. This is not a price forecast or investment advice. Analyst forecasts run systematically optimistic over long horizons; read them with that discount.