Yes, sustained growth of Apple over the past 20 years makes buying Apple stock an investment. Shareholder gains come either from dividends or stock buybacks (wh

Yes, sustained growth of Apple over the past 20 years makes buying Apple stock an investment. Shareholder gains come either from dividends or stock buybacks (which is kinda the same), but not every uptick in the stock price is because of value creation. Some stock price movements are also zero-sum. Active trading is zero-sum.