Deciding whether to add Apple stock to your portfolio? Find out what you should consider when buying Apple shares, and how to invest in them.
Should I buy Apple stock?
Apple is the world’s largest company by stock market capitalisation. Whether you add Apple stock to your investment portfolio depends on your financial situation and investment goals. It’s a good idea to do some research into Apple shares first, to see if it's the right decision for you.
Research Apple stock
We’ve put together some easy steps you can follow to research Apple shares.
- Visit Apple’s investor relations page: review Apple's annual and quarterly reports here; these cover the company’s financial results, operations and more.
- Check out Apple’s valuation: compare it to some similar American tech companies.
- Look at Apple’s price earnings ratio: this is its share price divided by earnings per share. A high P/E ratio suggests shares will see high growth rates in the future (or it could be that the stock is overvalued).
- Track Apple’s share price: Apple stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, under the ticker symbol AAPL. You can follow the Apple stock price online.
- Look at price forecasts for Apple: with Lightyear, you can see the average projection from 40 analysts following Apple shares. The price targets give you an indication of the potential upside or downside of the Apple share price.
Think about how Apple stock will affect your portfolio
Look at the rest of your portfolio. If you were to invest all of your money into Apple stock, this could be considered risky! It's important to consider diversification: spreading your cash across different investments so you can control how much risk you’re taking. So ask yourself things like:
- What else are you investing in?
- What types of companies make up the rest of your portfolio?
- Are all of your shares in tech companies?
- Do you have a good balance of stocks and other instruments that are considered lower risk, like Money Market Funds (MMFs)?
How can you buy Apple stock in the UK?
You can buy Apple shares on their own, or you can invest in Apple through an index fund – this is a group of instruments that track a stock market index. Apple is included in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and the Fidelity 500 Index Fund, for example.
How much Apple stock should I buy?
The amount of Apple shares you purchase will affect the balance of your portfolio, and it’s a smart idea to build a diverse portfolio. Some people follow a general rule whereby you never have more than 10% of your portfolio in one stock, so you could keep this guideline in the back of your mind. You can always buy more Apple shares later on, or even buy a smaller number on a regular basis using a repeat order. Here are some questions you can ask yourself when deciding how much to invest into Apple stock:
- What’s my investing budget and how much of this should I allocate to Apple stock?
- Can I afford to lose the money I put into Apple stock?
- Am I comfortable with my knowledge of the company? Do I understand Apple’s share price, and the price forecast for Apple stock?
Fractional shares of Apple stock
If you don’t want to buy a whole Apple share, some brokers will allow you to buy fractional shares. This means you can invest exactly the amount you want into Apple stock, rather than being restricted to a multiple of whatever their stock price is on the day you’re buying it.
For instance, if the stock is trading at $60, you'd be restricted to buying 1, 2, or 3 full shares (resulting in a $60, $120, or $180 investment), whereas fractional shares enable you to invest precisely the amount you want, such as $100. You can get fractional shares of Apple stock with Lightyear.
Is now a good time to buy Apple shares?
“Timing the market” is very difficult – not just for Apple stock – but for whatever instrument you’re investing in. The Apple share price today might be very different to the Apple share price tomorrow, in a week, in a month, and so on. There are certain trends you can follow and strategies you can adopt which might give you a better chance of profiting from your Apple stock, but it’s never guaranteed.
Some people – for example – might try to buy Apple stock after a period of decline in the stock price, such as immediately following the iPhone 15 pricing announcement in September 2023. So they might choose to buy Apple stock in the “dip”. That said, they might do this, and then the Apple share price continues to drop, resulting in them losing money.
So, whether it's a good time for you to buy Apple shares will depend on a number of things like your preferred investment strategy, your risk tolerance, how diversified your portfolio is, how much money you can afford to lose, and lots more!
Different ways you can buy Apple stock in the UK
There are different types of orders you can make when buying your Apple stock in the uk, which can help with managing potential gains and losses on autopilot, without having to keep tabs on daily fluctuations.
A market order: this is the standard order type. If you place a market order for Apple stock, you’ll get it at the best available price. (You might not get the exact Apple share price you see when placing your order for Apple stock – due to fast market fluctuations – but you will get the best available market price at the time for the Apple stock.)
A repeat order: repeat orders, or recurring orders, allow you to automate your investing plans. You can set up daily, weekly or monthly investment purchases for Apple shares on Lightyear. Take a look at our article on repeat orders here.
A limit order: you could use a limit order to have more control over the price you pay for Apple stock. Unlike a market order, a limit order is only executed if the Apple share price is at - or better than - the price you set for it. You might, for example, choose to create a limit order if you expect Apple’s share price to drop following an upcoming product announcement or earnings call, and want to buy at this lower price. Check out our article on limit orders for some examples and more.
A stop order: this is an order type where you set a price on a stock which – when reached – will automatically trigger a buy or sell transaction. Stop orders help investors manage potential volatility – so placing a stop order on your Apple stock means you’ll be less exposed to big market swings. With stop orders you can manage potential gains and losses on autopilot, without having to keep tabs on daily fluctuations in the Apple stock price.
Example of using a stop loss on Apple stock: you can place a stop loss order once you’ve bought your Apple shares, which allows you to limit your losses if the Apple share price falls: if you buy shares at $200 dollars, and set a stop loss of $180, your shares would be sold if the share price falls below $180, limiting your potential loss to 10%.
You can place stop orders with Lightyear, on whole US shares. So, if you want to set up a stop order to sell or buy a full Apple share – you can do it on your app. Stop orders are free for Lightyear users, just like all other order types on the platform.
Where to buy Apple stock in the UK?
It’s pretty simple to buy Apple stock, once you’ve decided it’s the right thing to add to your portfolio. If you haven’t got one already, you just need to open an account with an online brokerage or investing platform (you can’t buy Apple stock directly from Apple).
Once logged in to your investment platform, add money to your account, search for Apple stock by typing in Apple – or the Apple stock ticker AAPL – and place your order!
If you download the Lightyear app, you can easily and quickly place an order to buy Apple shares. (You don’t have to buy a full share of Apple stock either – you can buy a fractional share and spend however much you want on Apple stock). You can type in Apple or Apple’s ticker symbol (AAPL), decide how many shares of Apple you want, or how much money you want to invest in Apple, then place your order.
What are the fees for buying Apple stock?
Do check out the fees before you buy any Apple shares. This might also help you decide where to buy your Apple stock from.
We – Lightyear – charge 0.1% per order for Apple stock (and for any US shares). And we cap this at $1 max per order (min $0.10). You might also incur FX fees if buying in a different currency, but this is always at 0.35% and uses the live interbank rate (i.e. the real exchange rate!).
We know that some other investing platforms charge more, so we’ve made a handy comparison table on our pricing page to help you with your research. Scroll down and take a look at the US shares column of this to see what different brokers will charge you for Apple stock.
Disclaimer
This is not investment advice. When investing, your capital is at risk.
Charlotte is a Communications Manager at Lightyear. She's been sharing news and insights about the finance industry for over five years. At Lightyear she writes content about: product developments on the platform; data, research and news within the investing space; investing instruments and tools; and how individuals and businesses can grow their wealth.
