Apple (AAPL) Target Slashed to $141: ‘No Easy Answers’ as Trade Tensions and AI Lag Take T

April 22, 2025

We recently published a list of Top 10 AI Stocks Making Headlines Today In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other top AI stocks making headlines today.

Gratitude is no longer important in the tech world. Although users may be using these words to remain on AI’s good side in the event it takes over, it is costing companies millions of dollars. In the latest news, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has revealed how showing good manners to a ChatGPT model, such as saying “please” and “thank you,” adds up to millions of dollars in operational expenses.

When asked how much the company has lost in electricity costs from people being polite, this is what Altman had to say:

“Tens of millions of dollars well spent — you never know.”

While that may be so, Kurt Beavers, a director on the design team for Microsoft Copilot, noted how “using polite language sets a tone for the response,” and that when an AI model “clocks politeness, it’s more likely to be polite back.”

READ ALSO: Top 10 AI Stocks in the Spotlight This Week and 10 AI Stocks You Shouldn’t Overlook Right Now.

Even though politeness may come at a cost for the ChatGPT maker, these may be trivial when it comes to the immense scale at which the company operates itself. The company has recently released its latest artificial intelligence model, claiming that it can “ think with images”.

The main new reasoning model from OpenAI is known as the o3, while the smaller model released simultaneously is known as the o4-mini. The o3 allows users to upload whiteboards, sketches, and other images that AI can analyze and discuss.

The company is fiercely competing to stay ahead in the artificial intelligence race, facing intense competition from companies such as Google and Anthropic.

“For the first time, our reasoning models can independently use all ChatGPT tools — web browsing, Python, image understanding, and image generation. This helps them solve complex, multi-step problems more effectively and take real steps toward acting independently.”

O3 and o4-mini are OpenAI’s first AI models that have the ability to “think with images.” This implies that “they don’t just see an image, they can integrate visual information directly into the reasoning chain,” OpenAI noted.

For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points  (see more details here).

Apple (AAPL) Target Slashed to $141: ‘No Easy Answers’ as Trade Tensions and AI Lag Take Toll
Apple (AAPL) Target Slashed to $141: ‘No Easy Answers’ as Trade Tensions and AI Lag Take Toll

A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers.

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 166

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a technology company. On April 21, Moffett Nathanson reiterated the stock as “Sell” and cut its price target to $141 per share from $184.

“There are no easy answers here. Apple is inextricably tied to opposing forces at the center of the trade tensions. China is the beating heart of the global electronics supply chain. Paying a fortune in tariffs or paying a fortune in re-architecting supply chains only to finish with much higher costs is a lose-lose choice.”

According to the firm, Apple is also behind its peer when it comes to monetization from artificial intelligence. Moreover, it is also falling short of fueling a robust upgrade cycle for its premier product, the iPhone.

Overall, AAPL ranks 6th on our list of top AI stocks making headlines today. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

Terms and Privacy Policy


 

Search

RECENT PRESS RELEASES