Apple Stock (AAPL) Near Record Highs as Buffett Trims, Layoffs Surprise, and iPhone 17 Powers a “Best-Ever” Quarter Outlook

Apple Inc. (AAPL) stock is ending November 2025 hovering just below all‑time highs, even as Warren Buffett continues cutting his long‑time Apple position, the company carries out rare layoffs, and iPhone 17 pushes Apple back toward the top of the global smartphone market. As of Friday’s close, Apple shares were trading around the high‑$270s, giving the iPhone maker a market value above $4.1 trillion and leaving the stock within a percent of its 12‑month high near $280.38. ^[1]

Below is a deep dive into Apple stock news as of November 30, 2025, including fresh institutional filings, Buffett’s latest moves, earnings, iPhone demand, and what analysts are saying about valuation.

Apple Stock Price and Valuation Snapshot

New data from MarketBeat’s coverage of recent 13F filings shows Apple shares opened at about $278.63 on Friday, with a 12‑month range of roughly $169.21 to $280.38. At that level, Apple’s market cap is about $4.12 trillion, with: ^[2]

Trailing P/E ratio around 42x
P/E/G ratio near 2.6
Debt‑to‑equity roughly 1.25
50‑day moving average around $263; 200‑day around $232

Apple also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share ($1.04 annualized), for a modest yield of ~0.4% and a payout ratio under 14%, leaving plenty of room for continued buybacks. ^[3]

Barchart’s technical write‑up notes that Apple stock is up nearly 65% from its early‑April low, trades well above its 50‑, 100‑, and 200‑day moving averages, and remains firmly in a bullish trend. ^[4]

Q4 2025: Record Year and “Best‑Ever” Holiday Quarter in Sight

Apple’s latest fourth‑quarter 2025 results (its September quarter) help explain the market’s enthusiasm:

Revenue: about $102.5 billion, up 8–9% year over year
Earnings per share:$1.85, topping consensus estimates of ~$1.74
Full‑year revenue: around $416 billion, a new record

iPhone, Mac, and Services all posted year‑over‑year growth; Services alone delivered about $28.8 billion in quarterly revenue, an all‑time record, with strong performance in the App Store, cloud services, payments, and advertising. ^[5]

On the earnings call, CEO Tim Cook went further, guiding for a “best ever” December (fiscal Q1) quarter, with:

Total company revenue expected to grow 10–12% year over year
iPhone revenue projected to rise at a double‑digit rate
Services growth to remain strong, with gross margin in the 47–48% range despite tariff‑related costs. ^[6]

That upbeat guidance has been a key tailwind for AAPL throughout November.

iPhone 17 Demand and Apple’s Return to the Smartphone Crown

The iPhone 17 lineup is at the center of Apple’s growth story right now:

Research firm Counterpoint projects Apple will ship about 243 million iPhones in 2025, edging past Samsung’s ~235 million units and giving Apple about 19.4% global smartphone market share vs. Samsung’s 18.7%. That would make Apple the world’s top smartphone maker for the first time in 14 years. ^[7]
Coverage of China’s Singles’ Day shows Apple captured around 26% of all smartphone sales, and was the main reason the overall market managed to grow rather than shrink. ^[8]

Benzinga’s weekend “Appleverse” recap—published this morning—highlights Tim Cook’s comments that Q1 could surpass Q4’s strong results, and notes that strong iPhone 17 demand is helping Apple regain the top smartphone spot for the first time since 2011. ^[9]

In short, iPhone 17 is doing exactly what investors hoped: driving upgrades, lifting Apple’s unit market share, and reinforcing the ecosystem advantage that keeps users locked into Apple devices and services.

Rare Apple Layoffs: Efficiency Move, Not Crisis

One of the more surprising headlines this month: Apple layoffs.

A Barchart column titled “Apple Layoffs November 2025: Should You Buy, Sell, or Hold AAPL Stock Amid ‘Rare’ Job Cuts?” notes that Apple shares actually hit a new all‑time high on the day the company announced job cuts. The layoffs: ^[10]

Affect dozens of roles, primarily account managers serving enterprise, education, and government customers
Include staff at Apple’s briefing centers where large clients get demos
Are framed by Apple as streamlining and eliminating overlap in its sales organization

The same piece points out that:

AAPL is up nearly 65% from its April low
JPMorgan reiterated an Overweight rating on Apple with a price target of $305
Consensus on Barchart shows a “Moderate Buy” rating with targets as high as $345, implying roughly 37% potential upside from around $280. ^[11]

For a company that has mostly avoided high‑profile layoffs during tech’s recent cost‑cutting cycle, the move is notable—but current coverage largely treats it as a margin and focus play, not a sign of weakness.

Big Money Moves: Buffett Trims, Fisher Buys More

Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway

Perhaps the loudest headline today for Apple investors is a fresh Motley Fool piece making the rounds under variations of the title:

“Warren Buffett Dumps Apple and Bank of America to Pile Into This High‑Yield Investment”

The article, amplified on Yahoo Finance and other aggregators, notes that: ^[12]

Berkshire Hathaway has massively increased its position in U.S. Treasury bills, with over $300 billion parked in short‑term government debt.
Apple and Bank of America, while trimmed, remain two of Berkshire’s top three holdings.

A deeper look at Buffett’s moves over the last couple of years shows the trend:

A July 2025 analysis by Nasdaq/Motley Fool estimated that Berkshire had reduced its Apple stake by about 67% and Bank of America by 39%, redirecting cash into Treasurys yielding around 4.3%. ^[13]
Reuters reported earlier this month that Berkshire’s latest 13F shows an increased stake in Alphabet (Google) along with further cuts to Apple, leaving Berkshire with roughly 238 million Apple shares, down from more than 900 million at its peak. ^[14]

So while today’s “Buffett dumps Apple” headlines are eye‑catching, the reality is more nuanced:

He has significantly de‑risked and diversified, especially into Treasurys.
Apple is still a massive holding for Berkshire, just a smaller one than before.

Ken Fisher: Leaning In, Not Out

On the other side of the trade, a TipRanks profile shows billionaire investor Ken Fisher adding to already huge stakes in both Nvidia and Apple, arguing that lofty market‑wide valuations say little about near‑term returns. The article notes that Apple and Nvidia have become even larger positions in Fisher Investments’ “Magnificent 7” portfolio recently. ^[15]

Put together, the big‑money picture looks like this:

Buffett is locking in massive profits and prioritizing safety and optionality.
Fisher and other growth‑oriented managers are doubling down on mega‑cap tech winners, Apple included.

Fresh 13F Filings: Many Trims, But Apple Still a Core Holding

November 30 has brought a wave of 13F‑driven headlines from mid‑size wealth managers:

Golden Road Advisors cut its Apple stake by about 15.8% in Q2, finishing with 8,412 shares worth about $1.73 million. Apple is still its 10th‑largest holding. ^[16]
Horizon Wealth Management trimmed Apple by 5.9%, but AAPL still makes up about 1.9% of its holdings and ranks as its 15th‑largest position. ^[17]
Hantz Financial Services reduced Apple by 14.9%, yet the stock remains roughly 1% of its portfolio. ^[18]
Bristlecone Advisors and L.M. Kohn & Co. also reported Apple share sales in recent filings dated November 30. ^[19]
Another advisor, Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers, disclosed it sold 965 shares in Q2 but still holds more than 5,600 shares of AAPL; MarketBeat’s summary of that filing reiterates Apple’s EPS beat, revenue growth, and Moderate Buy Wall Street consensus with an average target near $278. ^[20]

Viewed as a group, these moves look more like position‑sizing and profit‑taking near record highs than a wholesale institutional exit.

Analysts: Bullish Long Term, Wary on Valuation

Despite the trimming, Wall Street remains broadly positive on Apple:

MarketBeat counts 3 “Strong Buy,” 22 “Buy,” 11 “Hold,” and 1 “Sell” ratings, for an overall “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target around $278, roughly in line with where the stock trades now. ^[21]
The Barchart analysis mentioned earlier points to upside targets as high as $345, implying substantial potential if the bull case plays out. ^[22]

However, a number of commentators are sounding a valuation caution:

A Nasdaq‑hosted piece from The Motley Fool asks whether investors should buy, hold, or sell Apple now that it’s near its 52‑week high, highlighting concerns that a lot of good news may already be priced in. ^[23]
A widely shared Seeking Alpha article following Apple’s record quarter argues that “a record quarter won’t save you from overpaying”, pointing to Apple’s premium multiples versus its slower revenue growth compared with some peers. ^[24]

The core tension:

Apple is delivering excellent execution and resilient growth, but the stock already trades at a lofty premium for a company of its size and maturity.

Strategic Catalysts: Digital ID, U.S. Manufacturing, and AI via Partners

Beyond smartphones and Services, several strategic moves may matter for Apple’s multi‑year story—and thus for Apple stock:

Digital ID in Apple Wallet: In November, Apple introduced Digital ID, letting users create and store a digital passport securely in Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch. The company emphasizes on‑device encryption, privacy controls, and biometric authentication. ^[25]
$600 Billion U.S. Investment Commitment: In August, Apple announced a new $100 billion U.S. investment, lifting its four‑year U.S. commitment to $600 billion. The “American Manufacturing Program” focuses on building an end‑to‑end U.S. chip supply chain and expanding advanced manufacturing and data‑center capacity across states like Texas, Arizona, Kentucky, and North Carolina. ^[26]
Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Regulation: Benzinga’s Appleverse recap notes that Apple has informed the European Commission that Apple Ads and Apple Maps meet DMA thresholds, potentially subjecting them to “gatekeeper” rules and stricter obligations. ^[27]

On the AI front, Apple is widely perceived as moving more cautiously than competitors—but some market voices see advantages in that:

Jim Cramer recently argued that “the biggest winner after Google may be Apple,” stressing that Google pays Apple more than $20 billion a year to be the default search engine on iPhone. He suggests Apple may benefit by getting paid to integrate powerful AI—like Google’s Gemini—into its ecosystem, rather than spending hundreds of billions to build a rival from scratch. ^[28]

These themes—identity, on‑shoring, and partner‑driven AI—support the long‑term narrative that Apple is turning its massive installed base and ecosystem into durable, high‑margin cash flows.

What Today’s News Means for Apple Stock

Putting the threads together as of November 30, 2025:

Fundamentals: Apple just delivered a record fiscal year, is guiding for a record holiday quarter, and is benefiting from strong iPhone 17 demand plus explosive Services growth. ^[29]
Position in the industry: Counterpoint and others expect Apple to reclaim the global smartphone crown for the first time in over a decade, driven by upgrades and strength in China’s Singles’ Day and other key markets. ^[30]
Investor behavior: Some of the world’s most famous value investors (Buffett, various wealth managers) are trimming Apple near record highs, not abandoning it—but clearly respecting the run‑up and richer valuation. ^[31]
Others (like Ken Fisher and bullish analysts) are adding to positions, betting that Apple’s ecosystem, AI‑adjacent opportunities, and new product cycles can support further gains even from today’s elevated levels. ^[32]
Risks: High valuation, regulatory exposure in the EU and elsewhere, dependence on iPhone cycles, and the possibility that growth slows from today’s double‑digit guidance all remain front‑of‑mind for more cautious commentators. ^[33]

For investors and traders watching Apple stock (AAPL) today, the message from the news flow is less “boom or bust” and more “high‑quality, high‑priced”:

The business looks as strong as it has ever been.
The stock reflects a lot of that strength already.

A Quick Note on Risk

Nothing here is personalized investment advice. Apple is a widely held, widely covered mega‑cap stock, and whether it fits your portfolio depends on your own goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. Consider consulting a qualified financial adviser before making any decision based on this information.

How To Buy Apple Stock In 2025 (AAPL)