On December 21st, Moody’s upgraded Apple to its highest “AAA” rating, a debt upgrade that comes on the heels of an equity upgrade by Bank of America.
Billy Duberstein for The Motley Fool:
After the upgrade, it is one of only three companies to enjoy that ultra-elite status, along with Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson.
The honor is quite a change from just five years ago, when Apple was regarded by many as nothing more than a cyclical device maker, rather than a sticky brand ecosystem with highly loyal customers and an emerging recurring-services division.
Of course, Warren Buffett (who also owns Moody’s stock, coincidentally) was smart enough to see Apple differently, and began buying the stock back in 2016, with a current split-adjusted average cost basis of $34.25, compared with a price around $178 today…
While the Moody’s upgrade reflects a better view of Apple’s safety profile, the company also received a positive note from equity analysts at Bank of America (another Warren Buffett holding!) on Dec. 14. Analyst Wamsi Mohan thinks Apple is in for a strong iPhone upgrade cycle in fiscal 2023, and he predicts it will also introduce a virtual reality headset that year as well.
MacDailyNews Take: $3 trillion and beyond, here we come!
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