What are their thoughts on Apple? Is there any worry of bias if it's a Dell computer?
Cute. Try clicks, that is a better insult.
But if you're looking for a serious answer, Apple is Wall Street's biggest undoing. It is the single largest reason managers are getting killed and being replaced by robots.
The S&P 500 has 500 stocks (obviously). But your success as a portfolio manager is really about 5 stocks.
Through March 31 the S&P 500 is up 5.53% year-to-date on a price-only basis. This is an annualized rate of 24+%!
These returns are being led by the FAANG stocks, all have outperformed the index:
Facebook is up 23.47% (133% annualized)
Amazon is up 18.23% (96% annualized)
Apple is up 24.04% (137% annualized)
Netflix is up 19.39% (104% annualized)
Google (Alphabet) is 7.48% (34% annualized)
Apple’s market capitalization is currently $753 billion while the FAANG stocks total $2.2 trillion.
Apple’s market capitalization is currently 3.56% of the S&P 500 (far and away the largest) whereas the FAANG stocks account for 10.55% of the index.
Apple along has accounted for 10.55% of the S&P 500's year-to-date return. Or, Apple is 0.58% of the S&P 500s 5.53% return for the quarter.
All the FAANG stocks accounted for 29.65% the of the S&P 500's year-to-date return. Or, FAANG is 1.64% of the S&P 500s 5.53% return for the quarter.
The other 495 stocks in the S&P 500 are more or less cannon fodder.
Here's the problem ... services that track portfolio performance show that
less than 5% of all active money managers are over-weighted these five stocks (meaning they have a larger share of their portfolio in these stocks than the S&P 500).
Other than 82, who is so excited about Apple that he post every time is makes a new high, and with language that suggests he soiled himself while writing it, most of Wall Street is miserable because of Apple's huge performance. So they are being replaced by robots and index funds.