Apple (AAPL 0.61%) reached an all-time high of $260.10 per share on Dec. 26, 2024.
Since that time, however, Apple stock hasn't exactly been a great performer. As I'm writing this, Apple trades for about $228 per share, which is a little more than 12% below the peak. What's more, since Apple reached its all-time high, the S&P 500 is up by 7%, meaning that Apple has dramatically underperformed the overall market.
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Why has Apple stock not reached a new high in 2025?
Several other megacap stocks have reached new all-time highs in 2025. In fact, since Apple peaked at $260 in late December, Nvidia (NVDA 1.46%) is up by 27% and Microsoft (MSFT 0.14%) has gained 16%. Even the overall Nasdaq-100 index and S&P 500 reached fresh highs just recently.
One big reason for the underperformance is that Apple is much more tariff-prone than the other megacap tech companies. Apple does quite a bit of its hardware manufacturing in China, and there isn't a cost-effective way to move its production to the United States.
Another issue is that Apple also has lagged behind other hardware manufacturers when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) adoption. For example, the latest smartphones from Alphabet's (GOOGL 1.44%) (GOOG 1.47%) Google, as well as from Samsung, are generally considered to have superior AI capabilities.
Apple is bringing some of its manufacturing to the United States. Management recently announced that it would spend $500 billion over the next four years to do exactly that. But it's unclear whether the tariff savings will offset this investment.
To be perfectly clear, Apple is still an amazing business with an extremely loyal customer base. That hasn't changed and there's no reason to think it will. There's just significantly more uncertainty surrounding the company's future than there was at the end of 2024.
