In terms of market value, Apple (AAPL) is currently the worlds largest company, but did you know that the company arose from some truly humble beginnings. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded the company in 1976 from Jobs garage and built their famed computers from this building. As of August 2020, following Saudi Arabias Aramco, Apple was the second company in the world to be valued at $2 trillion and in this same year, managed to hit a record $64.7 billion in revenue, in its fourth quarter.
When Apple first sold shares, they sold for just $22, however, if you had purchased $5,000 worth of Apple stock back in 1980, you would have yielded around $3.4 million, since stock has made up 18% per year since its initial public offering (IPO) price. Have you ever wondered who the largest shareholder of Apple is? If you have, read on as we list the shareholders who own the majority of Apples stock.
1. Arthur Levinson
In terms of individuals who have large investments in the tech giant, Arthur Levinson is a majority shareholder and has been chairman of the board at Apple since 2011. Levinson holds 1,148,712 shares and since Apple stock is currently selling for $146.80, this would mean that his shareholding equates to $168,630,922. However, since stock market prices fluctuate so dramatically, Apple is currently selling at a rate substantially lower than its share price this time last year, at which point Levinsons shareholding amounted to $405,311,542, as the Apple sold for $352.84 per share.
Since the stock market is extremely volatile and prices can rapidly change, its important that you learn how to trade stocks online before you invest. In order to minimise the risk involved and to practice trading on the stock market, you can open a demo account, which will allow you to get to grips with trading without investing any of your own capital.
2. Tim Cook
The current CEO of Apple is Tim Cook, who replaced Steve Jobs, following his death back in 2011. Prior to having this commanding role, Cook was the chief operating officer and therefore was in charge of all operations and global sales. Cook has been part of the team at Apple since 1998 and earlier this year it was revealed that he owns 837,374 shares of the company. This means that Cook owns the equivalent of 0.02% of all of Apples outstanding shares.
3. Jeff Williams
At the end of 2020 Jeff Williams owned 489,260 shares of Apple stock. Since joining the company in 1998, he has held various positions, which include Senior Vice President, Head of Worldwide Procurement and Operations. Williams currently manages the companys global operations and has been the key developer of the Apple Watch and the collective Apple health enterprise.
4. Al Gore
Al Gore is probably best known for being the former vice president of the US, however he is also an influential member on the Apple board. Gore became a member on the board of Apple back in 2003 and has a substantial shareholding, which as of the summer of 2020, amounted to 115,014 shares. At this time, his whole shareholding would have amounted to $40,581,539.
Is Apple a buy right now?
At the time of writing, Apple stock currently has an IBD Relative Strength rating of 67 out of 99, which compares a stocks price performance against all other members of the stock market over a 52 week period. Additionally, its IBD compositive rating comes in at 97 out of 99 and since the best growth stocks have a rating of 90 or over, this is a promising figure for Apple.
However, Apple is currently not a buy, since it is trading at a rate of 145.64, which falls outside of a buy point. Since the stock price is likely to pick up as the company reveals future releases, its worth keeping an eye on the stock for future improvements, if youre wanting to invest.
