This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.
The Magnificent Seven grouping of stocks has been one of the biggest stories on Wall Street. Coined by Bank of America analyst Michael Hartnett in 2023, this collection represents seven high-performing tech companies that are among the most influential in the U.S. The name was derived from a 1960 Western film of the same name.
Collectively, these companies comprise 34% of the S&P 500, a remarkable percentage. Just let that sink in for a moment -- out of 500 stocks, these seven account for a full one-third of the market capitalization of the index.
That's why the Magnificent Seven stocks are watched so closely -- they have an outsize impact on the market, and they have been responsible for a lot of the market's success. Over the course of a decade, from 2015 to 2024, these companies experienced a gain of nearly 700%.
This is the first part of a seven-article series ranking the best Magnificent Seven stocks to buy for 2026, in reverse order. All of these companies are excellent stocks to buy, but in ranking them, only one can be in the ignominious seventh spot.
As I'm looking at what to expect in the coming year, the smartphone giant Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is my seventh-rated Magnificent Seven stock to buy.
About Apple stock
Apple is a famed tech company that's best known for its revolutionary smartphone, the iPhone. Apple's iPhone provided internet access, phone service, texting, music, and access to Apple's App Store via a touchscreen interface -- something completely groundbreaking when the first models rolled out.
Apple's iPhone was unique compared to phones offered by Nokia, BlackBerry, and Motorola, and it changed the game for Apple stock. Shares jumped 133% in 2007, the year that the iPhone came out.
Today, Apple still generates most of its revenue from iPhone sales, but it also manufactures personal computers, wearable devices, and tablets, and has a lucrative Services division that includes Apple Music, its streaming services, a payment network, and the App Store. For fiscal 2025, Apple had $416.1 billion in revenue, with half of that coming from iPhone sales.
| Net Sales by Category | Fiscal 2024 (ended Sept. 28, 2024) | Fiscal 2025 (ended Sept. 27, 2025) | Percentage Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone | $201.18 billion | $209.58 billion | 4.17% |
| Mac | $29.98 billion | $33.71 billion | 12.44% |
| iPad | $26.69 billion | $28.02 billion | 4.98% |
| Wearables, home, and accessories | $37.0 billion | $35.69 billion | -3.54% |
| Services | $96.17 billion | $109.16 billion | 13.51% |
Source: Apple
Investors surely would want to see brisker iPhone sales, but Apple's flagship product has been hampered in China -- sales in greater China fell 3.8% in 2025, as Apple has seen greater competition from Chinese-based companies that are now offering smartphones with 5G technology.
Fortunately, however, Apple is getting a huge boost from its lucrative Services segment, which has a higher profit margin than divisions that rely on hardware development and manufacturing.
| Net Sales | Fiscal 2025 | Profit Margin |
|---|---|---|
| Products | $307.0 billion | 36.7% |
| Services | $109.16 billion | 75.4% |
Source: Apple.
What to expect from Apple in 2026
Apple has a market cap of around $4 trillion, making it at this writing the second-biggest company in the world by that measure. And the stock is up 8% this year.
The company is involved in artificial intelligence (AI), although its efforts are not as noticeable as some others in the Magnificent Seven. It's developing advanced M-series chips designed to run large AI models on its MacBooks, iPads, and Apple Vision Pro.
The company's strategy involves running AI programs on local devices rather than in cloud environments to maintain user privacy, although it does have a system -- Private Cloud Compute -- where data is processed in the cloud on secure Apple silicon servers but not stored or shared by Apple.
The company is selling its iPhone 17, a new Apple Watch lineup, and the third-generation version of its AirPods, and is coming off a quarter where its earnings per share jumped 13% on a year-over-year basis.
The company is ending 2025 in a great place -- remember, this is not a bad company. It just has the bad luck of being at the bottom of the rankings of my Magnificent Seven stocks to buy for 2026. It's not monetizing AI like some of its peers, unfortunately.
But it's still a strong buy in my books. You really can't go wrong with any of the Magnificent Seven stocks.
This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.
