Smart Money Thesis Scanner

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Scan run: 2026-09-07

1. Ownership Verification

Buy-side investors with verified current or historical ownership. Click any column header to sort. Each evidence link opens the underlying source.

Investor / Fund Status Evidence Source Date Position Tier / Freshness Confidence Notes
H&H International Investment
Duan Yongping · Common
 Confirmed current owner 13F-HR 2026-08-14
41.05% of portfolio ($7.84B, 27,098,707 shares)
as of 2026-06-30
 T2 / Fresh Medium Largest position in the book by a wide margin. Share count reduced 6.38% during Q2 2026. Duan publishes commentary on Chinese social media (Xueqiu), which is a T4 source under this skill's rules and is therefore not cited; no T1-T3 English-language commentary on Apple was located.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Warren Buffett / Greg Abel · Common
 Confirmed current owner Fund letter — annual 2026-02-28
22.04% of 13F portfolio ($65.95B, 227,917,808 shares); 1.6% of Apple outstanding, $6,255M cost basis, $61,962M market value at 2025 year-end
as of 2026-06-30
 T1 / Fresh High Position size cross-checked against the Q2 2026 13F filed 2026-08-14 (https://13f.info/manager/0001067983-berkshire-hathaway-inc). Share count unchanged versus Q1 2026 after the 2024-2025 trimming programme. Greg Abel authored the 2025 annual letter as CEO.
Greenbrier Partners Capital Management
Frederick 'Shad' Rowe · Common
 Confirmed current owner 13F-HR 2026-08-14
21.60% of portfolio ($288.26M, 996,183 shares)
as of 2026-06-30
 T2 / Fresh Medium Held continuously since at least Q2 2013 — the longest continuous holding period in the verified set. No publicly archived investor letters or factsheets discussing Apple were located.
7G Capital Management
Charles Jigarjian · Common
 Confirmed current owner 13F-HR 2026-08-14
13.24% of portfolio ($28.94M, 100,000 shares)
as of 2026-06-30
 T2 / Fresh Low Small manager; no public letters, factsheets or presentations located.
Wedgewood Partners
David Rolfe · Common
 Confirmed current owner Fund letter — quarterly 2026-07-31
7.81% of portfolio ($37.81M, 130,682 shares); 7.20% average weight during Q2 2026
as of 2026-06-30
 T1 / Fresh High Share count reduced 3.29% in Q2 2026; also trimmed in Q4 2025. 18-stock portfolio. The most substantive published commentary on Apple in the verified set.
Jensen Investment Management (Jensen Quality Growth Fund)
Eric Schoenstein / Rob McIver · Common
 Confirmed current owner Factsheet 2026-06-30
6.01% of fund (factsheet); 6.04% of 13F portfolio ($249.13M, 860,969 shares)
as of 2026-06-30
 T1 / Fresh Medium Top-5 holding in the Jensen Quality Growth Fund. The 30 June 2026 factsheet and the 2Q 2026 quarterly update page confirm the holding but contain no Apple-specific commentary.
Matrix Asset Advisors (Matrix Advisors Value Fund)
David Katz · Common
 Confirmed current owner 13F-HR 2026-08-14
5.79% of portfolio ($4.08M, 16,300 shares)
as of 2026-06-30
 T2 / Fresh Low The firm's own Q2 2026 Capital Markets Commentary (https://matrixassetadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Q2_2026_Commentary-FINAL-07.06.26-with-compliance.pdf, 2026-07-06) discusses several holdings but does not mention Apple.
Chou Associates Management
Francis Chou · Common
 Confirmed current owner 13F-HR 2026-08-14
5.34% of 13F portfolio ($11.57M, 40,000 shares)
as of 2026-06-30
 T2 / Fresh Low Securities/vehicle caveat: the Chou Funds semi-annual report to 30 June 2026 (https://choufunds.com/pdf/SEMI-AR%202026%20EN.pdf) does not list or discuss Apple in any of the five Canadian funds. The 13F is filed at the Chou Associates Management level and covers separately managed US accounts. Position appears to have been trimmed during Q2 2026.
Muhlenkamp & Company
Ronald Muhlenkamp / Jeff Muhlenkamp · Common
 Confirmed current owner 13F-HR 2026-08-14
5.21% of portfolio ($17.98M, 62,125 shares)
as of 2026-06-30
 T2 / Fresh Low The firm's July 2026 quarterly commentary (https://www.advisorperspectives.com/commentaries/2026/07/07/muhlenkamp-quarterly-commentary-july-2026) covers macro, semiconductors and gold but does not mention Apple.
Mairs & Power Growth Fund
Andrew R. Adams · Common
 Confirmed current owner 13F-HR 2026-08-14
3.70% of 13F portfolio ($205.57M, 710,431 shares)
as of 2026-06-30
 T2 / Fresh Low Newest large-weight holder in the set (initiated Q4 2023). The fund's own Q2 2026 commentary (https://www.mairsandpower.com/insights/fund-commentary, 2026-06-30) discusses Microsoft, Alphabet, Entegris and TSMC but does not mention Apple.
Himalaya Capital Management
Li Lu · Common
 Confirmed current owner 13F-HR 2026-08-14
0.9% of portfolio ($32.0M)
as of 2026-06-30
 T2 / Fresh Low Below the 2% conviction threshold. Included under the concentrated-fund exception: the Q2 2026 13F shows only 8 positions totalling $3.70B, an average weight of 12.5%. Apple is the smallest of the eight and is a residual tail rather than a conviction position — read it as such. Himalaya publishes no investor letters.

2. Investor Theses

Click any card to expand. Direct quotes are in quotation marks; paraphrases are tagged inline.

Wedgewood Partners David Rolfe
Confirmed current owner High
Fund letter — quarterly (Q2 2026) · 2026-07-31 · Position: 7.81% of portfolio (130,682 shares, $37.81M); 7.20% average weight in Q2 2026 as of 2026-06-30
Thesis summary
Apple is a two-decade core holding held as a quality compounder rather than a trade. "we've owned Alphabet and Apple for two decades" — Wedgewood Partners Q2 2026 Client Letter, July 2026. [Paraphrased from Wedgewood Q2 2026 and Q4 2025 client letters] Wedgewood's case rests on Apple's consistency of hardware/software execution and its ability to keep converting that into upgrade and trade-up demand; the firm manages the position's weight against valuation rather than trading the thesis.
Business quality
"Apple's multi-decade consistency in executing on hardware and software upgrades, along with increasingly proprietary silicon content, provides consumers with a dependable, high-quality user experience" — Wedgewood Partners Q4 2025 Client Letter, January 2026. [Paraphrased from the same letter] Wedgewood links that experience directly to the company's ability to drive adoption and trade-up across the installed base.
Growth drivers
Q2 2026 letter: "Revenues grew 17%, driven by 22% growth in iPhone and 16% growth in services." On the product cycle: "The iPhone 17 family has catalyzed a solid upgrade cycle ahead of what we expect to be another strong launch later this year, featuring a new foldable form factor" — Wedgewood Partners Q2 2026 Client Letter, July 2026. Q4 2025 letter cites "+15% revenue growth in its services business" on over $100B of trailing-twelve-month services revenue, and "double-digit growth in iPhone revenues, as it experienced strong demand after launching several new models," with the company having "guided to strong double-digit revenue growth in its holiday quarter" — Wedgewood Partners Q4 2025 Client Letter, January 2026.
Fundamental drivers
Three specific levers are named across the two letters. (1) iPhone unit/upgrade cycle economics — 22% iPhone revenue growth in the June 2026 quarter, with a foldable launch identified as the next catalyst. (2) Services revenue growth as a mix-and-margin lever — 16% growth in Q2 2026, 15% growth on a >$100B base in Q4 2025. (3) Input-cost management and vertical integration as a gross-margin defence: "As one of the largest single purchasers of DRAM, the Company has strong negotiating leverage, but it can also implement hardware and software innovations to reduce its dependence on memory" — Wedgewood Partners Q2 2026 Client Letter, July 2026. Contribution to return in Q2 2026 was 0.95 percentage points on a 7.20% average weight; in Q4 2025 it was +0.50% on a 7.38% average weight, and +0.42% for full-year 2025 on a 7.01% average weight.
Moat / competitive advantage
"increasingly proprietary silicon content" combined with "multi-decade consistency in executing on hardware and software upgrades" — Wedgewood Partners Q4 2025 Client Letter, January 2026. The Q2 2026 letter adds scale-based supplier leverage: Apple as "one of the largest single purchasers of DRAM" with "strong negotiating leverage," plus the engineering option to "reduce its dependence on memory" through hardware and software design.
Management
unknown — the letters reviewed do not comment directly on Apple's management team, incentives or capital allocation.
Valuation angle
Wedgewood manages the weight, not the thesis. [Paraphrased from Wedgewood Partners Q4 2025 Client Letter, January 2026] The firm trimmed Apple during Q4 2025, grouping it among positions it viewed as due for a valuation pause or retreat after two consecutive strong years — a valuation-driven trim, not a change in the fundamental view. The Q2 2026 13F shows a further 3.29% reduction in share count. In the Q2 2026 letter Apple is grouped with other 'Magnificent 7' holdings the firm believes remain attractive despite market headwinds affecting hyperscalers.
Risks mentioned
[Paraphrased from Wedgewood Partners Q2 2026 Client Letter, July 2026] Memory (DRAM) cost inflation is the risk the letter engages with most directly, framed as a bill-of-materials pressure Apple can partially offset through purchasing leverage and design. Valuation is treated as the second risk, evidenced by the Q4 2025 trim rationale rather than by an explicit risk statement.
Time horizon
Long. "we've owned Alphabet and Apple for two decades" — Q2 2026 letter; 13F data shows continuous disclosure since at least Q2 2013.
Evidence notes
Three T1 primary sources on the manager's own domain (Q2 2026, Q1 2026, Q4 2025 client letters). The Q1 2026 letter was checked and contains no Apple discussion — noted so the absence is not mistaken for an unread source. Position data cross-checked against the Q2 2026 13F.
Sources
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Warren Buffett / Greg Abel
Confirmed current owner Medium
Fund letter — annual (2025 Annual Report) · 2026-02-28 · Position: 227,917,808 shares, $65.95B, 22.04% of the 13F portfolio; 1.6% of Apple's shares outstanding as of 2026-06-30
Thesis summary
Apple is held as one of a handful of understandable American businesses expected to compound over very long periods, with deliberate inactivity as the default. "a large portion of our portfolio is concentrated in a small number of American companies such as Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Moody's – businesses we understand well" that are expected to "compound over decades" — Gregory E. Abel, Berkshire Hathaway 2025 Annual Report, 28 February 2026.
Business quality
[Paraphrased from Berkshire Hathaway 2025 Annual Report, 28 February 2026] Abel's characterisation is at the level of the portfolio rather than the company: Apple is placed in the category of businesses Berkshire understands well and expects to compound. No company-specific analysis of Apple's products, margins or competitive position appears in the letter.
Growth drivers
unknown — the 2025 annual letter names no specific growth driver for Apple.
Fundamental drivers
Disclosed economics only. Berkshire's 2025 year-end equity table shows Apple at a $6,255M cost basis against $61,962M of market value, 1.6% of Apple's shares outstanding, and $280M of dividends received in 2025 — Berkshire Hathaway 2025 Annual Report, 28 February 2026. [Analyst synthesis] The cost basis implies roughly a 10x gain on the original outlay; the dividend yield on cost is about 4.5%, versus well under 1% on market value.
Moat / competitive advantage
unknown — not discussed at the company level in the letter reviewed.
Management
unknown — the letter does not comment on Apple's management. It does state Berkshire's own posture toward these holdings: "limited activity in these holdings," with material adjustment reserved for cases where management identifies "fundamental changes in its long-term economic prospects" — Berkshire Hathaway 2025 Annual Report, 28 February 2026.
Valuation angle
unknown as an explicit view. [Paraphrased from Berkshire Hathaway 2025 Annual Report, 28 February 2026] The stated policy is inactivity rather than valuation-based sizing: Berkshire expects limited activity in its core equity holdings and would adjust materially only on a change in long-term economic prospects, not on price. This is the operative contrast with Wedgewood, which trims on valuation.
Risks mentioned
unknown — no Apple-specific risk is flagged in the letter. The only conditional named is the general one above: a fundamental change in a holding's long-term economic prospects.
Time horizon
Long — "compound over decades" (2025 Annual Report, February 2026). Held since Q1 2016.
Evidence notes
T1 primary source on Berkshire's own domain, authored by Greg Abel in his first annual letter as CEO. The commentary is deliberately portfolio-level: Apple is named as a core holding but is not analysed as a business, so most thesis fields are honestly 'unknown' rather than filled from Buffett's older public statements. Position size cross-checked against the Q2 2026 13F filed 2026-08-14, which shows the share count unchanged versus Q1 2026 — the 2024-2025 trimming programme appears to have stopped.
Sources
H&H International Investment Duan Yongping
Confirmed current owner Low
13F-HR · 2026-08-14 · Position: 41.05% of portfolio (27,098,707 shares, $7.84B) as of 2026-06-30
This fund discloses the position but does not publish substantive commentary on it.
Evidence notes
Position confirmed via Q2 2026 13F. Share count reduced 6.38% during the quarter. If you want this thesis, the Xueqiu archive is where it lives — outside this skill's evidence bar, and worth reading directly rather than through an intermediary.
Sources
Greenbrier Partners Capital Management Frederick 'Shad' Rowe
Confirmed current owner Low
13F-HR · 2026-08-14 · Position: 21.60% of portfolio (996,183 shares, $288.26M) as of 2026-06-30
This fund discloses the position but does not publish substantive commentary on it.
Evidence notes
Rowe has written publicly in the past (Forbes columns, panel appearances) but nothing located addresses Apple specifically within the freshness window.
Sources
Jensen Investment Management Eric Schoenstein / Rob McIver
Confirmed current owner Low
Factsheet · 2026-06-30 · Position: 6.01% of the Jensen Quality Growth Fund (860,969 shares, $249.13M) as of 2026-06-30
This fund discloses the position but does not publish substantive commentary on it.
Evidence notes
T1 factsheet confirms the holding and its weight. The 2Q 2026 quarterly update page (https://www.jenseninvestment.com/financial-advisor/insights/quality-growth-fund-update-2q-2026/) was checked; the accompanying webinar transcript is gated and could not be verified.
Sources
Matrix Asset Advisors David Katz
Confirmed current owner Low
Fund letter — quarterly · 2026-07-06 · Position: 5.79% of portfolio (16,300 shares, $4.08M) as of 2026-06-30
This fund discloses the position but does not publish substantive commentary on it.
Evidence notes
The firm's own Q2 2026 Capital Markets Commentary was read in full; Apple is not addressed on thesis, valuation, growth, risk or position change.
Sources
Chou Associates Management Francis Chou
Confirmed current owner Low
Fund letter — semi-annual · 2026-06-30 · Position: 5.34% of 13F portfolio (40,000 shares, $11.57M) as of 2026-06-30
This fund discloses the position but does not publish substantive commentary on it.
Evidence notes
Vehicle mismatch flagged: 13F (manager level, US accounts) versus the published Canadian fund reports. Treat the 13F as the ownership evidence and the absence of commentary as genuine.
Sources
Muhlenkamp & Company Ronald Muhlenkamp / Jeff Muhlenkamp
Confirmed current owner Low
Fund letter — quarterly · 2026-07-07 · Position: 5.21% of portfolio (62,125 shares, $17.98M) as of 2026-06-30
This fund discloses the position but does not publish substantive commentary on it.
Evidence notes
July 2026 quarterly commentary read in full; Apple absent.
Sources
Mairs & Power Growth Fund Andrew R. Adams
Confirmed current owner Low
Fund letter — quarterly · 2026-06-30 · Position: 3.70% of 13F portfolio (710,431 shares, $205.57M) as of 2026-06-30
This fund discloses the position but does not publish substantive commentary on it.
Evidence notes
Q2 2026 fund commentary read in full; Apple absent from contributors, detractors, holdings discussion and new-position commentary.
Sources
7G Capital Management Charles Jigarjian
Confirmed current owner Low
13F-HR · 2026-08-14 · Position: 13.24% of portfolio (100,000 shares, $28.94M) as of 2026-06-30
This fund discloses the position but does not publish substantive commentary on it.
Evidence notes
Small manager with no discoverable public archive.
Sources
Himalaya Capital Management Li Lu
Confirmed current owner Low
13F-HR · 2026-08-14 · Position: 0.9% of portfolio ($32.0M) — smallest of 8 disclosed positions as of 2026-06-30
This fund discloses the position but does not publish substantive commentary on it.
Evidence notes
The concentrated-fund exception is applied here with the caution the skill's rules call for: it admits the row, it does not make the row a conviction signal.
Sources

3. Fundamental Driver Map

Drivers cited by verified holders. A filled cell means the driver appears in that investor's card (quoted or paraphrased). Drivers added by the model with no investor citation do not appear.

Driver Wedgewood PartnersBerkshire Hathaway Inc. Evidence Consensus
iPhone upgrade cycle and product cadence
"Revenues grew 17%, driven by 22% growth in iPhone"; "The iPhone 17 family has catalyzed a solid upgrade cycle ahead of what we expect to be another strong launch later this year, featuring a new foldable form factor" — Wedgewood Q2 2026 letter.
 Medium Single view
Services revenue growth
"16% growth in services" (Q2 2026 letter); "+15% revenue growth in its services business" on over $100B trailing-twelve-month revenue (Q4 2025 letter).
 Medium Single view
Input-cost leverage and vertical integration (DRAM / silicon)
"As one of the largest single purchasers of DRAM, the Company has strong negotiating leverage, but it can also implement hardware and software innovations to reduce its dependence on memory" — Wedgewood Q2 2026 letter. The only bill-of-materials / gross-margin argument any verified holder makes.
 Medium Single view
Hardware-software integration and proprietary silicon as the moat
"Apple's multi-decade consistency in executing on hardware and software upgrades, along with increasingly proprietary silicon content, provides consumers with a dependable, high-quality user experience" — Wedgewood Q4 2025 letter, linked to adoption and trade-up.
 Medium Single view
Understandability and multi-decade compounding
Apple is named among "businesses we understand well" expected to "compound over decades" — Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway 2025 Annual Report, February 2026. The whole of Berkshire's stated case, at portfolio level.
 Medium Single view
Valuation discipline / multiple risk
[Paraphrased from Wedgewood Q4 2025 letter] Apple was grouped among positions due for a valuation pause or retreat after two strong years, which drove the trim; a further 3.29% share-count reduction followed in Q2 2026. Berkshire takes the opposite stance — "limited activity in these holdings" absent "fundamental changes in its long-term economic prospects."
 Medium Single view

4. Consensus & Divergence

Where investors agree

The verified holder base is united by duration, not by argument. Both investors with published commentary — Wedgewood Partners and Berkshire Hathaway — hold Apple as a very long-duration core position (Wedgewood "for two decades" and disclosed since Q2 2013; Berkshire since Q1 2016) and both frame it as a quality business rather than a cyclical or event-driven trade. Beyond that the agreement is thin, because the agreement is thin in the source material: of eleven verified holders, only two have published anything substantive about Apple in the freshness window. Note also that duration is the pattern across the whole table even where no thesis exists — Greenbrier Partners (21.6% of portfolio) and Muhlenkamp have held since at least Q2 2013, and 7G Capital since Q4 2020. What the smart-money map for Apple actually shows is a base of long-duration owners who have largely stopped explaining themselves.

Where investors split

Driver-specific quality thesis, actively sized against valuation
Wedgewood Partners
Wedgewood names its levers — iPhone cycle economics, services growth, DRAM purchasing leverage, proprietary silicon — and manages the weight against price. It trimmed in Q4 2025 on the view that the position was due for a valuation pause after two strong years, and cut the share count a further 3.29% in Q2 2026, while continuing to describe the business favourably. Thesis intact, position size negotiable.
Portfolio-level quality thesis, deliberate inactivity
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Abel's first annual letter places Apple in a category — understandable American businesses expected to compound over decades — without analysing the company. The stated policy is "limited activity in these holdings," with material change reserved for "fundamental changes in its long-term economic prospects," i.e. explicitly not for valuation. The Q2 2026 13F is consistent: the share count is unchanged versus Q1 2026, ending the 2024-2025 trimming programme.
Time-shifted divergence in the commentary itself
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Wedgewood Partners
The clearest split is not bull versus bear but specific versus generic, and it has widened over time. Berkshire's public case on Apple was once detailed and Buffett-voiced; in the February 2026 letter, under a new CEO, it is a single clause in a list of four names. Wedgewood's has stayed granular and, if anything, become more operational — the Q2 2026 letter argues about memory pricing. An investor relying on Berkshire's disclosure for an Apple view is now relying on considerably less than they were two years ago.
Position weight versus published conviction — the two do not line up
H&H International Investment, Greenbrier Partners Capital Management, 7G Capital Management, Wedgewood Partners
The three largest Apple weights in the verified set — Duan Yongping's H&H at 41.05%, Greenbrier at 21.60%, 7G Capital at 13.24% — produce no citable commentary at all, while the most substantive thesis comes from the fifth-largest weight. Duan's commentary exists but lives on Xueqiu, below this skill's evidence bar. Anyone reading the ownership table as a conviction ranking would be reading it backwards.

5. What the Market May Be Missing

No investor in the verified set explicitly framed a market mispricing.

6. Research Questions

  1. Wedgewood is the only verified holder making a gross-margin argument, and it is a DRAM-cost argument. Does Apple's own disclosure support the claim that purchasing leverage plus design substitution offsets memory inflation, and over what lag?
  2. Services grew 16% in the June 2026 quarter on a base above $100B. How much of that is App Store take-rate and Google TAC — the two lines most exposed to regulatory and contractual change — versus subscription lines Apple controls outright?
  3. Berkshire's share count was unchanged in Q2 2026 after two years of trimming. Is that a decision or an absence of one? Nothing in Abel's letter distinguishes the two, and it matters for how much signal to read into the pause.
  4. Duan Yongping holds 41% of his book in Apple and trimmed 6.4% in Q2 2026. His reasoning is public but only on Xueqiu — worth reading in the original rather than through intermediaries, since no source at this skill's evidence bar carries it.
  5. The foldable iPhone Wedgewood expects later this year is the only near-term catalyst any verified holder names. What does the bill of materials and expected ASP do to blended hardware gross margin if it ships at volume?
  6. Nine of eleven verified holders publish nothing about Apple despite meaningful weights. For the ones that do write regularly and chose not to mention it — Matrix, Muhlenkamp, Mairs & Power — check prior-year letters to see whether Apple was ever discussed, or whether it has always been a position they hold without arguing for.