You can buy a whole country with $269 billion. But it might not be enough cash to buy Apple Inc. out of its current jam.
That jam is the company’s current iPhone cycle, which not as good as expected. The launch of three new iPhone models last year—including the redesigned iPhone X—seems to have cooled early. Several companies that supply components for the device have warned investors of weakening demand on their quarterly reports, though they remain careful not to mention the iPhone by name, per Apple’s strictures. Apple’s...