AAPL dips below $400B, Buffett tells Cook to ignore cash complaints, buy back stock

By Ed Sutherland on Mar 4, 2013

You can’t get a better financial advisor than Warren Buffett. The so-called ‘Oracle of Omaha’ Monday weighed in on what Apple should do, faced with low stock prices and one investor’s call to use the iPhone maker’s billions in cash. Although Buffett’s appearance Monday morning on CNBC lasted three hours, the short version is this:

Apple CEO Tim Cook should buy his company’s stock while cheap. It’s uncertain whether the financial whiz will have any luck, seeing Cook’s predecessor Steve Jobs supposedly ignored similar advice. Coincidentally or not, Apple’s market capitalization dropped below $400 billion in early trading Monday, the first such drop since January 2012… Read More

 

AAPL for a second time passes Exxon, GOOG hits new all-time high

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 1, 2013

Look, these things are not the be-all, end-all for business performance, but obviously market capitalization reflects investors’ expectations concerning Apple’s future performance. The iPhone maker last Friday hit a 52-week low and as a result ceded its top spot as the world’s most-valued publicly traded corporation to the oil giant Exxon.

AAPL shares have slowly been recovering since and today has surpassed the oil conglomerate for a second time in after-hours trading. The Cupertino firm now leads Exxon with a $10 billion market cap difference, but is Apple’s valuation sustainable in the long run? Read More

 

Analyst: remember Steve – Apple’s best days lie ahead

By Ed Sutherland on Jan 17, 2013

A Wall Street analyst Wednesday gave investors a pep talk, invoking the words of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs to point out the iPhone maker is hardly ready to head for the exit. Instead, Topeka Capital Market analyst Brian White issued a record target price for a stock battered by negative headlines.

“The negative sentiment around the stock has reached epic levels that we haven’t seen in recent memory and yet we believe [Apple's] product portfolio has never been stronger”, White said in an investment note. He also quoted Jobs in response to naysayers who recently came out of the woodwork spelling doom for Apple… Read More

 

AAPL tanks below $500 on ‘weaker than expected’ iPhone 5 demand rumor

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 14, 2013

AAPL fell briefly below $500 this morning following The Wall Street Journal and the Nikkei newswire reports of the iPhone 5 part orders halved amid what’s being claimed a ‘weaker-than-expected’ global demand for the handset. Specifically, shares briefly sank to $497 in pre-market trading Monday as investors reacted to the news.

It’s the first time since February 2012 that AAPL tanked below $500 a share. AAPL lost nearly 26 percent since a September 2012 all-time high of $705.07 a share. In the last three months alone, the Apple stock lost seventeen percent of its value. Rival Samsung seized its opportunity, having released this morning official numbers proving flourishing sales of its Galaxy S smartphone series, which surpassed the accumulated sales record of 100 million units (from the supply side) since its launch in May 2010… Read More

 

Analysts cut AAPL target price average to $740

By Ed Sutherland on Dec 29, 2012

All of the concerns voiced about the impending leap off the ‘fiscal cliff’ and its associated increase in capital gains taxes on stock sales have sent Wall Street into a tizzy. The end result: knocking Apple’s target share price down to $740. Nearly a dozen analysts have cut their target price for Apple stock amid talk that the iPhone maker has a dodgy future, what with supply questions hanging over the executives at One Infinity Loop. Despite all the rain clouds, the $740 per share target price reduction is about $225 more than Friday’s opening on Wall Street… Read More

 

Here’s why AAPL hit 10-month low today

By Ed Sutherland on Dec 14, 2012

China’s influence over Apple’s financial health is growing. In fiscal 2011, the country accounted for sixteen percent of Apple’s revenues. But is Apple’s growth in China sustainable?

Friday, two analyst reduce forecasts amid what one described as a ‘muted’ response to today’s iPhone 5 release in the world’s largest market. As a result, Apple shares fell 3.9 percent to a ten-month low.

The decline also hurt a number of Apple’s suppliers as the firm is thought to be cutting orders in order “to balance excess inventory”. For example, Broadcom is down 3.13 percent and Qualcomm dropped 4.7 percent.

As a result, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek cut his iPhone shipment estimate for the first three months of 2013 to 48 million, down from 52 million. He also trimmed Apple’s expected gross profit margin to 40 percent, down two percentage points… Read More

 

Apple’s Technologies boss cashes in shares

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 30, 2012

Bob Mansfield, Apple’s un-retired SVP of Technologies, is another high-ranked executive to cash in shares of AAPL stock after an “insanely insane” sell-off that saw a quarter of Apple’s market cap wiped off. Like other executives, Mansfield likely figured the move makes financial sense ahead of a rumored “fiscal cliff”.

According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Mansfield, a long-time Apple veteran, unloaded 35,000 shares. At $582.21 a share, the transaction earned him $20,377,507.50. He still holds 29,548 shares and will get another 150,000 shares in June 2013 and March 2016 provided he stays with Apple.

Though Mansfield wanted to retire, Apple’s boss has managed to convince him to stick around for two more years. If Cook gave me a $2 million a month paycheck as a compensation for an advisement position, I’d also un-retire in a heartbeat…. Read More

 

Citi: Apple bottomed, stock set for rebound

By Ed Sutherland on Nov 26, 2012

After a six-month absence on the Apple watch, Citi has returned – and with a strong recommendation to buy shares of the consumer electronics giant. After hitting a particular rough patch that included a sell-off one observer called “the insanity of insanity”, Apple’s stock is set to rebound 20-50 percent.

Citi’s new Apple watcher, Glen Yeung, told investors Monday that Apple’s drop in share price has likely hit bottom. Indeed, in most cases, shares will climb back within twelve months. Yeung said the stock should hit $675… Read More

 

AAPL rebounds from the ‘insanely insane’ sell-off

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 19, 2012

After seeing a quarter of its market cap wiped off as shares hit a half-year low, Apple has finally rebounded as investors return to senses with a big rally on Monday. The unexpected sell-off has been “insanely insane”, according to Topeka’s Brian White. AAPL hit $565.35 a share in after-hours trading.

It closed at $565.73 a share. All told, AAPL soared today $38.05, or 7.21 percent, its second highest one-day dollar gain since 1984. It also pulled Nasdaq and S&P 500 with it. Though still a far cry from the mid-September high of $705.07, it’s a good sign that investors haven’t lost confidence in Apple’s longer-term prospect, especially after eight straight weeks of losses… Read More

 

This guy cost Apple $96 billion this week

By Christian Zibreg on May 18, 2012

Have you noticed the ‘broken record syndrome’ over at Business Insider? The publication’s been running an article series under their trademark sensationalist headlines that spell doom for Apple’s stock price.

Down Goes Apple, said the headline Tuesday. Down Goes Apple Again, another one screamed Wednesday. And There Goes Apple Again!, yesterday’s headline has it. And you gotta love their latest story titled Apple Is Now Straight-Up Tanking!

So, what’s going on here? Is AAPL on a downward spiral? And what’s up with the $2,000 per share Apple meme? Read More

 

iOS boss cashes in shares, pockets $38.7 million

By Christian Zibreg on May 2, 2012

Scott Forstall, who heads the team behind the software that powers iOS devices, by far Apple’s most profitable division, has recently sold 64,151 shares worth roughly $38.7 million, a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) commission has revealed.

Cook, identified as Apple’s CEO-in-waiting in Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple book, still holds nearly $2 million worth of shares plus retention bonuses worth over a quarter billion dollars provided he stays with Apple and the company does emerge as the world’s first trillion dollar corporation… Read More

 

Tanking margins reportedly forcing US carriers to drop iPhone subsidies

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 10, 2012

Apple may be poised to become the world’s first trillion dollar company thanks to the iPhone, but sustainability of  the pricey handset is now being put into question. One prominent analysts warns that United States carriers such as AT&T – faced with plummeting margins at a six-year low – are now considering reducing iPhone subsidies and adopting stricter upgrade policies.

If instituted, these changes could result in a more expensive iPhone and an estimated worldwide drop in sales of 27.5 million units in the June quarter, with a revenue estimate $1 billion below consensus… Read More

 

Wall Street expects Apple to become the world’s first $1 trillion company

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 3, 2012

Those who sold their shares of Apple last October did not make the wisest move, but all is not lost. AAPL closed yesterday at $618.63 a share (more than a 32GB WiFi iPad, mind you) for a market cap of $577 billion. As the company’s quarterly earnings report looms, analysts are running their spreadsheets and upping targets. So, how long until Apple zooms past the $1 trillion market cap milestone?

According to one analyst, it could be sooner than you think – in less than two years – as Apple drains market cap from rivals and profits from more money being poured into tech stocks. By a growing number of credible estimates, Apple is on track to become the first public company in the world with a $1 trillion market cap.

Phew, what a difference a few years make… Read More

 

AAPL trading halted briefly following a crash over errant trade

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 23, 2012

Trading of Apple shares has been briefly halted this morning. According to Business Insider, an errant trade caused the stock to crash a whopping nine percent, hitting a low of $542.80. Trading’s been resumed and AAPL opened at $598.39. The Apple stock trades on Nasdaq under the AAPL symbol… Read More