Is Investing $100 in Apple Stock Worth it?

Key Points

• Apple shares now lag the S&P 500 over the past five years.

• The stock still trades at a steep valuation ratio.

• It's unreasonable to expect further strong growth from this already massive business.

• 10 stocks we like better than Apple ›

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been a huge winner historically over an extended period. In the past 10 years, its shares have crushed the S&P 500 by a wide margin. However, condense your time horizon to five years, and the business is lagging the overall market. That's not an encouraging sign.

This "Magnificent Seven" stock currently trades 11% below its peak. Would it be a smart move to invest $100 in Apple stock while it's on the dip?

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Image source: Getty Images.

Starting valuation is important

When looking at potential stocks to buy, investors must consider the price the market is asking them to pay. Valuation is incredibly important. Pay too much, and your returns will suffer. But if you can find good bargains, your portfolio should prosper.

Apple shares trade today at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 34.8. This represents a premium to the S&P 500 index's ratio of about 25.2. It's also much more expensive than Apple's own average multiples over the past five- and 10-year periods. This likely means the consumer tech giant's shares are overvalued.

Don't expect huge growth

Paying for Apple's stock at its current P/E ratio might make sense if the business was putting up strong growth numbers. But it hasn't. Revenue did increase by 9.6% year over year in its fiscal 2025 third quarter, which ended June 28. But that top line figure of $94 billion was only 13.4% higher than in the same period three years ago.

No one can argue that Apple isn't a terrific company. It has a highly regarded brand, a powerful ecosystem, and unbelievable profitability. The issue for investors these days, however, is that it already operates at such a massive scale, and consumers don't feel as much need to constantly upgrade to the latest iterations of its products. Based on that, we can expect that its growth won't impress in the years ahead.

With that in mind, investors would likely be better off looking for another opportunity with more upside to put their $100 into right now.

Should you invest $1,000 in Apple right now?

Before you buy stock in Apple, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Apple wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $678,148!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,052,193!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,065% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 186% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 25, 2025

Neil Patel has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.