AAPL Returns Around iPhone Series Release Dates

A subscriber asked how Apple Inc. (AAPL) stock behaves around unveiling of new iPhone models. To investigate, we identify 19 distinct iPhone series release dates from 6/29/07 through 9/16/22 and calculate average daily cumulative returns for AAPL from 21 trading days before release date (Day 0) through 63 trading days after release date. Two pairs of iPhone release dates overlap somewhat for this specification. As a benchmark, we calculate average daily cumulative returns for AAPL during this interval for all trading days. In case there is some confounding factor (seasonal?), we repeat these calculations for Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ). Using the selected iPhone series release dates and daily dividend/split-adjusted prices for AAPL and QQQ from the end of May 2007 through mid-December 2022, we find that: (more…)