Buffett Brain · Research note
Score updated 21 Oct 2026 · analysis from 1 Jun 2026
AAPL· Technology
Apple
Apple is a wonderful business at a price that leaves no room for error, earning a 2.2 percent owner yield against a 37 times multiple.
Buffett fit
Partial fit
Owner
91
Durability
80
Management
56
Price
4
Score updated 21 Oct 2026 · analysis from 1 Jun 2026
Buffett's checklist
Each number against Buffett's bar, and where it ranks among Technology stocks in our database.
How much profit the business makes on each dollar invested in it. Higher is better.
What is left of each sale after the cost of making the product. A high number often means pricing power.
The cash the business earns for its owners, compared with the price of the whole company.
How fast sales grew each year over the last five years.
How many years of today's profit you pay for at today's price. Lower means cheaper.
How much the company owes compared with what it owns outright. Lower is safer.
The four pillars
How the business measures up on each of Buffett's four tests.
If I owned the whole company at this price, I would be handing over roughly 37 dollars for every dollar it earns and pocketing a 2.2 percent owner-earnings yield for my trouble.
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The durability here is real and I will not pretend otherwise. A 49.6 percent and a five-year average of 53.5 percent mean the has held for years, not quarters, and a 0.8 percent worst-year earnings decline shows the business barely flinches in a downturn.
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Management runs a machine, retiring 2.7 percent of the shares each year, which is exactly what you want when you cannot reinvest every dollar at a 50 percent return.
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There is no here, and an honest analyst has to say so plainly.
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For and against
The strongest points on each side, with the numbers behind them.
In its favor
6- 1Exceptional returns on capital, with a 49.6 percent trailing and a 53.5 percent five-year average that few businesses on earth can match.
- 2A 47.9 percent and 32.6 percent prove genuine rather than commodity economics.
- 3Earnings per share compound at 7.2 percent even as revenue grows only 3.3 percent, thanks to a disciplined 2.7 percent annual reduction in share count.
- 4Remarkable stability, with a worst-year earnings decline of just 0.8 percent showing the business barely bends in hard times.
Concerns
6- 1The valuation leaves no room for error, with a 37.5 times multiple and a meager 2.2 percent owner-earnings yield that you could nearly match with a risk-free Treasury.
- 2Revenue growth is anemic at 3.3 percent a year, which makes it very hard to justify paying nearly 35 times operating profit on enterprise value.
- 3 is only 88 percent of reported net income, so the cash earnings are a touch thinner than the headline profit suggests.
- 4The current ratio of 1.07 is tight for a company of this stature, leaving a slim cushion of short-term liquidity.
Price history
$340+128.3%· 5-year return
Weekly closing prices. Touch or hover the line for a date.
The business
How the business works
Apple sells hardware that people love and then rents them the software, services, and ecosystem that keep them coming back, and the numbers show it. A 47.9 percent and a 32.6 percent tell you this is not a commodity gadget maker, it is a toll bridge with a logo on it. Revenue grows slowly at 3.3 percent a year, but earnings per share climb 7.2 percent because the company keeps shrinking its own share count by 2.7 percent annually.
How this analysis has moved
The call has held across 5 reviews.
Sep 27, 2026 → Oct 21, 2026
What other investors would say
The same company, judged by three other documented playbooks.
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