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Posted
May 06 2009, 03:40 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
There must have been a dip in the news about new products and management changes at Apple (AAPL). Most of the conversation about the company in the last several days has turned to Apple’s cash balance of $29 billion. Only a handful of American companies have that much money on hand. The fact that Apple does not do anything with it makes people, especially the company’s investors, unhappy. The cash sits in accounts which yield only a percentage point or two. What a waste.
There are some valuable lessons to Apple’s balance sheet management. The first is that the Apple board is smart and patient. Mergers and acquisitions are hard to make work at any company. Apple’s culture is insular. Trying to integrate outside products and people would be harder for Apple than almost any well-known technology company in the world. A great deal of that has to do with Apple’s obsession about secrecy, which is a match for the 1,000-year-old Knights Hospitaller that furtively ruled parts of Europe and the Middle East for centuries.
Apple’s rejection of invention from outside the firm and product development other than its own make it a company that probably will always create its consumer electronics, PCs, and whatever else it decides should bear the Apple brand.
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Posted
Oct 22 2008, 11:06 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
The tech world is still incredulous at the strength of Apple's numbers Tuesday. Now we see why, amidst many calls for cheaper Macbooks, the company went in the opposite direction earlier this month. The economy may be sinking, but Apple isn't feeling the pain.
A lot of its momentum is due to the iPhone, of which Apple sold 6.9 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30. (That brings total iPhone sales, including the first version, to 13 million). Apple uses a subscription-based accounting method that doesn't immediately recognize all iPhone revenue on its books. If it did, the iPhone would have contributed nearly 39% of the total quarterly revenue. Mac computers accounted for 30%.
And that's causing people to rethink Apple. The iPhone has, quite suddenly, become Apple's most important product. And it has momentum like nothing else in Apple's portfolio.
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Posted
Nov 17 2008, 07:58 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Analyst estimates are too high across the board, but Apple is, as usual, the exception. Analysts have been ratcheting down their expectations for Apple in its 2009 fiscal year, and now the company is poised to beat those expectations -- economy be damned.
Analysts expect Apple's 2009 earnings to be $5.35 per share on $37.5 billion in revenue. This pessimistic consensus has primed Apple to beat revenue expectations by $900 million a quarter in 2009, according to Andy Zaky of the Bullish Cross blog. Zaky's not a Wall Street analyst, but he's more accurate than many of them when it comes to pinning down Apple's numbers.
The biggest problem with current estimates, Zaky writes, is that they don't anticipate growth in unit sales for any of Apple's product lines. And they don't factor the giant pot of deferred revenue that Apple doesn't immediately recognize from iPhone sales. (It actually takes two years for Apple to completely move the revenue from an iPhone sale onto its books).
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Posted
Apr 15 2009, 03:18 PM
by
James Dlugosch
Rating:
This post comes from partner site InvestorPlace.com.
The chief of AT&T (T) is dying to hold on to its exclusive iPhone deal with Apple (AAPL), which expires next year. And I can't blame him.
But it might not be a great deal for Apple.
I mean, Apple's a great company. It's one of those absolute must-own stocks that should be in every investor's portfolio. In fact, back in March I suggested that, rain or shine, Apple (AAPL) was one of the rare companies that could perform well irrespective of economic conditions. (Get four more recession-proof stocks here.)
How could you not own the stock -- and how could AT&T not want to keep playing? The iPhone is a perfect example of what Apple has done year after year -- innovate, dominate and grow the business. You could argue that it's everything that the "big T" isn't.
That's why Apple's smartest move may be to spread the iPhone wealth.
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Posted
Sep 09 2009, 09:55 AM
by
Louis Navellier
Rating:
Apple (APPL) has almost single-handedly redefined the consumer electronics market with innovative products, from changing the way we listen to music to redefining the role of cell phones.
But don't think this company is all fun and games. Apple continues to make inroads into the computer market and erode the market share of fellow tech icon Microsoft (MSFT). The Mac vs. PC rivalry is more than just a cute ad war.
Bing: Apple or Microsoft - who's winning?
Actually, I'm a big fan of those Mac vs. PC ads -- and not just because they're funny. I think they provide a glimpse into the corporate culture of each company. Apple is, at heart, an inventive company looking to grow by creating the next big thing. On the other hand, Microsoft is an established giant that keeps doing what it has always done well … then using the profits to purchase a smaller company's ideas and leverage them to even bigger returns. Apple's strategy is obviously much more glamorous and appeals to image-conscious consumers, however both of these strategies have merit.
Which of these tech powerhouses is a better investment right now? Take a look at some numbers:
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Posted
Jul 21 2009, 03:52 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Wall Street analysts expect Apple’s earnings to do better than estimates. This is not surprising. Apple (AAPL) has a history of setting low expectations about its figures and then beating them handily. It has become a game of chess between the company and experts who follow it.
Some analysts tracking the company go so far as to send people to Apple stores and other retailers to count how products are selling. Others check with companies that supply components to Apple for its products like the iPhone and Mac to gauge demand.
Apple’s results should be pulled down by the same gravity that has hurt the consumer electronics and PC markets. The relentless slowing of the economy has made both individual and business purchasers of computers slow to upgrade their hardware. The Apple iPhone is more expensive than most other handsets. A recession is hardly a good time to overpay for a phone.
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Posted
Oct 21 2008, 02:05 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Apple brought in some big numbers today, reporting a profit that soared 26% to $1.26 a share. That's far more than the $1.11 a share that analysts were looking for. But revenue was a bit of a disappointment, even though it jumped 27% to $7.9 billion. Analysts wanted $8.02 billion. Still, investors are thrilled with the results, pushing Apple shares up 12% in after hours. They had fallen 7% today before the market closed.
The star of the quarter will probably be the iPhone. Apple sold 6.9 million of them in the quarter, and analysts were only expecting around 5 million. A lot of the iPhone's revenue is tucked away, however, because Apple doesn't show it on the books until months after it's received. Apple shows $11.68 billion in "adjusted" revenue and $2.44 billion in "adjusted" net income.
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Posted
Jul 10 2009, 12:14 PM
by
James Dlugosch
Rating:
It is rare that I will say any stock is a must own, especially in the current market environment. With the economy wriggling free from the death grip of a massive debt explosion, how can any corporation be a must-own holding?
Apple Inc. (AAPL) is the exception.
No matter what the economic conditions, Apple is the one company that can thrive through thick and thin. The last year or two of remarkable performance is a clear indication of Apple's staying power.
How can you not want to own this company?
Perhaps you were one of the sellers gripped by fear of the loss of shining star, Steve Jobs? If so you just missed more than $50 of stock appreciation.
Perhaps you are one those now selling because the stock has gone too far too fast?
If so, get over it. Apple Computer, even with the impressive run-up, trades for a modest 25 times trailing earnings and 23 times forward earnings. In a normative market state, Apple would garner a frothy 50 multiple to be considered at a peak valuation. Put a 50 multiple on the current estimate for September year-end 2009 earnings, and you get a stock price of $276
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Posted
Jan 22 2009, 03:12 AM
by
Bernhard Warner and Matthew Yeomans
Rating:
This post comes from partner site The Big Money.
What recession? That was the defiant message Apple (AAPL) sent to the markets after trading closed Wednesday, posting better-than-expected profits on record sales last quarter, thanks to unsinkable demand for the iPod and iPhone. Consumers purchased more than $10 billion worth of Apple products last quarter, a first for the company. To many tech journalists, the results seemed like they were pulled from a different era entirely. "Headlines like that could make it easy to forget temporarily that the U.S. is in the throes of a recession and consumers and companies are reining in spending on consumer electronics," BusinessWeek commented. And what about Steve Jobs, the company's ailing CEO? The Financial Times reports that Jobs did not show up for the analysts' call, as expected, but he talked in the earnings release about the "best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history." The announcement sent Apple shares soaring after hours, and Thursday they were up another 6%.
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Posted
Oct 14 2008, 09:55 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
There's no recession in Mac land. Apple introduced its new line of notebooks today, and the bottom price point is disappointing. The cheapest MacBook will cost $999. So much for the company getting into the sub-$1,000 notebook market.
Apple shares are slumping today in response.
We heard a lot of talk about Apple introducing an $800 or $900 laptop, and analysts crunched the numbers and found the company would dramatically increase its potential market by doing so. Slashing prices would eat into Apple's margins, but Apple prepared us for this by saying its gross margin would fall by nearly 5% to 30% in the next fiscal year.
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