Ryan Vlastelica
Apple’s Tim Cook handed over the reins to John Ternus, capping a tenure as chief executive officer that cemented the company as an iconic global brand and turned its stock into one of the most reliable bets.
The shares soared 2,258 per cent under Cook, who took over from legendary founder Steve Jobs after the close of trading on August 24, 2011. Cook inherited a company with a market capitalisation of less than $US350 billion ($489 billion) and built the maker of iPhones and Mac computers into a diverse $US4.6 trillion ($6.4 trillion) business that also sells watches, AirPods, and financial services.
“Steve Jobs left huge shoes to fill, but Cook is also leaving big shoes, albeit of a different type, given his very different approach to expanding the company’s growth engines,” said Chris Brigati, chief investment officer at SWBC. “He’s certainly done amazing things as CEO, and every shareholder has benefited, probably more than was expected when he took over.”
Ternus will face an early test at a critical event next week, when he’s expected to unveil a foldable version of the iPhone, along with other product updates.
“The ideal for Ternus will be to blend the Jobs and Cook approaches,” Brigati said, citing Cook’s steady, positive reign against “the otherworldly innovation and massively impressive growth of the Jobs era.”
Apple’s stock gains under Cook are even more impressive when accounting for dividends. During his time as CEO, the shares climbed a whopping 2716 per cent on a total-return basis. Over the same period, the S&P 500 Index was up 757 per cent, including dividends, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index jumped 1499 per cent.
The gain puts Apple among the 30 best performers in the S&P 500 over that stretch, but well behind Nvidia, by far the biggest gainer with a more than 73,000 per cent surge. Several other Big Tech stocks outperformed Apple in the Cook era, including Tesla and Broadcom.
“Cook’s legacy will be that he was a steady hand on the wheel over not just a long period of time, but a period of time that featured huge changes in the technology landscape,” said Allen Bond, managing director and portfolio manager at Jensen Investment Management, which owns Apple shares.
While several companies tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure — including Micron Technology and Seagate Technology — have outpaced Apple, the stock has benefited from its image as an anti-AI play during periods of angst over the technology. Its 40-day correlation to the S&P 500 recently turned negative for the first time in more than a decade.
“Under Tim Cook, Apple has created market cap growth at a rate of roughly $US32 million ($44.8 million) an hour, every hour, for nearly 15 years,” Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote in an August 20 report. It was the first firm to top $US3 trillion in market value and has repeatedly attained the status of the world’s largest company.
The stock accounts for 7 per cent of the S&P 500, up from less than 3.3 per cent in 2011. Its weighting peaked at nearly 7.9 per cent last month.
Cook oversaw a steady rise in revenue, with sales going from $US157 billion in Apple’s fiscal 2012 — his first full year as CEO — to $US416 billion in the most recent period. When Apple’s 2026 fiscal year closes at the end of September, revenue is expected to reach $US477 billion.
A key driver of revenue growth has been Apple Services. In fiscal 2025, the company generated more than $US109 billion from the business, more than a quarter of its total sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In fiscal 2013, the earliest year for which data is available, services were just $US16 billion, or 9.4 per cent of Apple’s total.
Cook did oversee successful product launches, such as AirPods and the Apple Watch. But others, like the Vision Pro headset and a failed foray into self-driving cars, fell flat, feeding into criticism that Apple lost its innovative edge. To some investors, the company’s underwhelming AI offerings have been a missed opportunity.
“The push into services is perhaps the most successful thing Cook did, since it is high margin and recurring revenue that is among Apple’s fastest-growing categories,” Bond said.
“His biggest flaw is probably AI. It’s hard to not notice that they’re bringing in someone with an engineering and products background to replace him.”
One of the biggest legacies of Cook’s tenure has been his focus on stock buybacks, which have reduced Apple’s outstanding share count by nearly 45 per cent since a 2012 peak, taking it to its lowest since 1998.
Apple has spent more than $US840 billion on buybacks since fiscal 2012, according to company data through the first quarter of 2026. In 2014, billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn urged the company to accelerate its buybacks, saying the stock was undervalued.
Under Ternus, the company’s risk appetite could change, according to Bank of America’s Mohan. Apple has moved away from a net cash neutral objective, which “could signal a period of higher investment in R&D, Capex, and larger M&A,” he wrote.
“The latter two have not been emphasised in the Tim Cook era but AI could require Apple to move with a higher rate of change.”
While Cook has many fans, Wall Street is less effusive about the company. Of the 58 analysts tracked by Bloomberg who follow the stock, 34 have buy ratings. By contrast, roughly 95 per cent of the analysts covering megacap peers Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon are bullish on those stocks.
A growing number of Apple bears are also emerging, many of whom take issue with the stock’s elevated valuation. Apple trades at roughly 33 times earnings estimated over the next 12 months compared with its 10-year average of 23. When Cook took over, the multiple was about 12.
“While he isn’t the visionary showman that Jobs was, or as product focused, everything he did was to bolster Apple’s ecosystem and operations, which was a very effective way of increasing the company’s value,” Bond said.
“The stock performance reflects that success.”
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