Apple (AAPL) CEO Sells $16.5M — Here’s Why Analysts Still Say Buy

TLDR

• Apple CEO Tim Cook sold $16.5M in AAPL stock on April 2 at prices between $251.25–$256.00 per share
• AAPL is down ~4.6% year-to-date, trading around $255, slightly underperforming the S&P 500
• Apple launched the MacBook Neo at $599 on March 4 — its lowest-ever laptop price — and all eight models sold out online by March 20
• Bank of America estimates the MacBook Neo opens up a $32B total addressable market in 2026
• BofA analyst Wamsi Mohan reiterates a Buy rating with a $320 price target on AAPL

Apple (AAPL) stock is currently trading around $255, down roughly 4.6% year-to-date.

Apple Inc., AAPL

Tim Cook has been quietly trimming his Apple position. On April 2, the CEO sold $16.5 million worth of AAPL stock — 5,087 shares — at prices ranging from $251.25 to $256.00 each. The sales were made under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, which is designed to remove any suggestion of trading on inside information.

Cook still holds 3.28 million Apple shares, worth close to $848 million at current prices. So yes, he’s selling — but he’s not going anywhere fast in terms of his stake.

There had been chatter that Cook might be eyeing the exit as CEO. He quickly shut that down in a recent interview, saying he hasn’t made any public statements about stepping down from the role he’s held since 2011.

While the stock has had a rough start to 2026, Apple isn’t alone in that. Every member of the Magnificent 7 is in the red year-to-date. Microsoft is down nearly 23%, Tesla off 21.8%, Meta down 12.2%, and Amazon falling 7.8%. By that measure, Apple’s 4.6% dip looks almost tame.

What makes Apple different from its mega-cap peers right now isn’t AI spending — it’s the deliberate lack of it. While hyperscalers plan to pour nearly $700 billion into AI infrastructure in 2025, Apple’s planned capex sits around $14 billion. Apple is betting AI becomes a commodity. Whether that plays out or not, the strategy keeps costs low.

MacBook Neo Sells Out

The headline product this quarter is the MacBook Neo, launched March 4 at $599. That’s Apple’s cheapest laptop ever — cheaper than the Apple Watch Ultra 3. It targets the $500–$1,000 notebook segment, where Apple had virtually no presence, holding just 0.6% market share in 2025.

The timing is calculated. Hundreds of millions of older PCs cannot be upgraded to Windows 11, creating a natural replacement cycle. Dell’s COO Jeffrey Clarke estimated in late 2025 that around 500 million PCs capable of running Windows 11 haven’t yet been upgraded — and another 500 million can’t run it at all.

Bank of America’s $32B TAM Call

Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan ran a full analysis on the Neo’s market opportunity. His team pegged the 2026 TAM at $32 billion, based on notebook units priced $300–$800 shipped in 2025, adjusted down 10% for 2026, and multiplied by Apple’s competitive education ASP of $499.

At 10% market share and 19% operating margins, Mohan estimates the Neo could add $0.03 of incremental EPS. Not massive on its own, but the bigger play is stickiness — the iPhone installed base is around 1.5 billion units versus just 260 million for Mac. Converting iPhone users to Mac owners grows the overall Apple ecosystem.

Mohan reiterated a Buy rating and a $320 price target, based on 32x his 2027 EPS estimate of $9.94.

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