Apple Inc., fresh off upbeat quarterly results tied to robust iPhone sales, rolled out a four-part bond deal on Monday to raise new debt. The new deal from Apple
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raised $5.5 billion for the technology giant through the issuance of four series of bonds with ratings of AAA from Moody’s Investors Service and AA+ from S&P Global, according to Informa Global Markets.
That size hit in the anticipated range of $4 billion to $6.5 billion, signaling healthy demand for the Apple debt deal. Fresh supply can be tepid in the final month of summer for bond issuance. “Even though August is typically a slower issuance month,” said Tom Murphy, head of investment grade credit at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, “we estimate this year could be busier.” Murphy pointed to improved conditions for borrowers in the past month, but also ongoing macro uncertainties as potential catalysts for more robust issuance from highly rated U.S. companies in August. The U.S. investment-grade bond index rallied to a negative-11.6% total yearly return through the end July, an improvement from its negative-16.1% annual performance as of mid-June, he said. Robust iPhone sales also have been a bright spot of quarterly corporate earnings so far, with some Wall Street analysts dubbing Apple’s earnings “resilient” in the face of soaring prices for gas, groceries, vehicles, shelter and more. Read: Big Tech survived the earnings test, but many more tech companies …