Apple stock - page 3

This week on The CultCast: Why the new iPad Pro screen is “practically perfect”; stories from The Cult of Mac; our most anticipated WWDC 2016 announcements; a look at Apple’s newly updated MacBooks; Apple’s secret plan to create hit TV shows; and, have you ever wondered how rich you’d be if you invested in Apple’s IPO instead of buying its computers? We break down the numbers.

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As a tech fan, there are plenty of times — particularly when you hear about billionaire investors and record-breaking stock prices — when you wonder whether you would have had the foresight to predict things turning out the way they have.

Would you have bet big on Apple around the time of its 1980 IPO? Was it obvious that Steve Jobs was going to turn around the company in 1997? Or would you have been the equivalent of folks calling the Titanic an unsinkable ship, and pouring your life savings into pre-crash dot-com companies?

An amazing new data-viz shows how the returns on a $1,000 investment made in Apple, Microsoft and IBM would have fared over the next 20 years following January 1, 1996. Check it out below:

We can add another award to Apple’s long list, although the company might not be too happy to accept it: The iPhone maker’s stock lost the most value of any tech company this year.

The news comes out of a study from USA Today that reports a shocking average 14 percent decline in value from 462 tech companies. That drop resulted in total losses of $529 billion, but Cupertino is the lead horseman in this year’s stockpocalypse.

Apple soothsayers have been predicting doom and gloom for the iPhone-maker ever since Tim Cook dropped the company’s Q1 2016 earnings. iPhone sales are projected to decline. The iPad is still struggling. And even the Mac is taking a drop.

This is the end for Apple according to some Wall Street crazies, but they’re missing a key metric in Apple’s earnings report that shows the company still has a lot of growing to do thanks to it’s huge install base.

You could say 2015 was a product-ive year for Apple. The company entered the wearable market with the Apple Watch, released a hugely updated version of the Apple TV streaming box, unveiled the massive iPad Pro (and considerably less massive iPad Mini 4), took on tune-streaming with the Apple Music service, and made its annual update to the iPhone with the 6s and 6s Plus.

We also saw updates to the operating systems that run all those things, as well as a new desktop OS in El Capitan, but it wasn’t all great news. Apple encountered lawsuits, shakeups and investigations by countries and entire federations thereof.

So whether we ultimately decide Cupertino had a good or bad year, at least it was pretty interesting. Relive the ups and downs with this Apple year in review 2015, Cult of Mac-style.

This time of year yields more Apple doom predictions than New Year’s resolutions, so it’s no surprise that Apple analysts have been naming 2016 as the year iPhone sales finally fall off a cliff.

But according to Brean Capital, not only is Apple stock still worth buying, with a $170 price target, but investors should look through the “supply chain ‘noise'” and see the potential for iPhone sales to hit around 250 million units next year — or 7 percent to 10 percent growth from Apple’s already stellar 2016.

You might remember that on Monday, AAPL stock had a bit of a bad day before rebounding. It wasn’t just a bad day for Apple stock, though: Fueled by fears of a total collapse of the Chinese stock market, the whole S&P 500 collapsed that day.

In the first 24 hours, only Apple rebounded. It’s proof positive of Apple’s fabled “reality distortion field.”

Tim Cook is kicking butt at Apple — at least according to the tenure- and performance-based restricted stock units he recently received, with a market value of close to $58 million.

Apple stock plummeted Monday morning before Tim Cook stepped in by emailing Mad Money‘s Jim Cramer to reassure investors that all is well for Apple in China. The move quickly turned Apple’s stock price around, but Cook might have violated Securities and Exchange Commission rules in the process.

Apple’s stock price fell off a cliff this morning, trading below $100 a share for the first time all year. The best time to buy AAPL shares all year was at 9:30 a.m. today, when the stock opened at $94.87 — before Tim Cook intervened.

Apple stock continued to tumble Friday, closing at $105.76 — down more than 20 percent from its all-time high of $134.50 earlier this year.

The precipitous drop is in line with dozens of other big-name stocks that have taken a turn for the worse in 2015, but what’s driving the downturn?

Apple’s stock is taking a hit after today’s Q3 2015 earnings call. At the time of writing, AAPL is down 6.72 percent in after-hours trading to 121.97. Yikes.

Cupertino claimed the title of world’s most valuable company earlier this year, but according to some bullish Wall Street analysts, Apple could soon become the world’s first trillion-dollar company.

In a note to investors today, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White increased his target price for Apple shares to $180, putting his estimations well above other analysts’ expectations. Apple shares’ value will increase 40 percent over the next 12 months, according to White’s report.

While Apple naysayers have pointed to slumping iPad sales and the unclear future of the Apple Watch as signs that Apple is weakening, White gives three key reasons why Apple is poised to break the trillion-dollar barrier.

Apple officially joined the Dow Jones Industrial average today, placing the world’s most valuable company among historic brands like Coca-Cola, Boeing and 3M. But Apple’s first day with the big boys isn’t getting off to a great start.

Boom! That’s the sound of AAPL stock hitting yet another all-time high Tuesday, making Apple the first $700 billion company in history.

Microsoft made history in 2000 when it became the first company to close at $600 billion, so this feat must make Tim Cook and the entire Apple team incredibly proud.

In a universe where things worked out a bit differently, Ronald Wayne would be a billionaire.

When Apple was incorporated on April 2, 1976, Wayne was named alongside Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as one of three founders. Wayne owned a 10 percent stake in the company.

However, just 12 days after Apple started up — feeling out of his depth because he “was standing in the shadow of intellectual giants” — Wayne threw in the towel and sold his shares for just $800.

“I was 40 and these kids were in their 20s,” Wayne told Cult of Mac. “They were whirlwinds — it was like having a tiger by the tail. If I had stayed with Apple I probably would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery.”

AAPL is back in a big way. After breaking an all-time high of $100.53, the price of Apple shares have continued to climb upward, and according the a WSJ report, hedge funds are piling onto the stock in droves.

Over the second quarter of 2014 henge funds have purchased $855 million in new positions in Apple, giving AAPL the second highest level of new buying activity among S&P 500 stocks.

Don’t expect anything too exciting from Apple’s third quarter earnings tomorrow.

This is Apple’s slowest part of the year. The summer slump means no new hardware, which means no explosive sales growth. But that’s alright, because the best is yet to come.

Tim Cook and co. have promised that truly epic things are coming in the fall, and Wall Street is actually excited about Apple again.

We never thought they’d do it, but Apple is splitting their stock 7-to-1—and on our newest CultCast, we discuss that and other surprising (and non-boring) notes from their recent financial call. Plus, the best way to get the Apple stuff you want at lower prices; OS X betas now available to all; Apple Maps spots Nessie; Apple celebrates Earth Day with some great new marketing; why we’re crazy about Apple Campus 2; and forget Ashton, how about Leonardo DiCaprio as the next Steve Jobs?

LOL your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin!

And thanks to our friends at New Relic for sponsoring this episode. Yes, New Relic, the all-in-one web application performance management tool that lets you see performance from the end user experience, through servers, and down to the line of application code. Put simply, New Relic helps the people who build modern software understand the stories their data is trying to tell them. If you’re ready to make your software run better, head over to https://newrelic.com/cultcast for a free 30 day trial.

Click on for the show notes.

Carl Icahn has backed off campaigning Apple to increase its stock buyback — citing the company’s recent repurchases, along with influential proxy adviser ISS’s call against his proposal.

In a letter directed to Apple shareholders, Icahn noted that he was ditching his non-binding proposal to get Apple to add a further $50 billion to its buyback plan — down from the original $150 billion he was initially requesting.

Regardless of whether you think Apple’s falling share prices are justified or the result of bozos who don’t understand how Apple works, one person is seemingly happy with the immediate response to Apple’s recent financial quarter: Carl Icahn.

Apple’s shares closed at 1.4 percent lower for Tuesday’s trading — ending the day at $553.13.

The reason in a nutshell: that Wells Fargo changed its rating for Apple from “outperform” to “market perform”. While this downgrade wasn’t accompanied by a change in valuation (which remains in the $536 to $581 range) the rating essentially shifts recommendation away from “buy” to “neutral” (which actually means “sell”).

Would Carl Icahn’s memoirs be titled How To Lose Friends And Influence People?

Activist investor Icahn has been proving divisive in recent months by spearheading a campaign to get Apple to carry out a $150 billion stock buyback (which he later dropped to “just” $50 billion).

Well, it’s difficult to be as outspoken as Icahn without certain other investors speaking out about you — and that’s exactly what Anne Simpson, head of corporate governance at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, has done.

Apple stock closed at a new 2013 high on Tuesday — rising 2.7 percent (or $15) over the course of the day to finish at $566.32.

For those keeping score, that’s the best close Apple’s stock has had since December 4, 2012, and means that the company is up by 6 percent so far this year — although still down on the $700 all time high which accompanied the iPhone 5.

If you’re looking for a way to get rich overnight, here’s an idea: somehow borrow $1 billion without anyone knowing what you’re doing, invest it all in Apple shares the night before an earnings call (when the stock price is all but guaranteed to rise), immediately sell the next morning, return the original capital, and then pocket the profit without anyone the wiser.

Sound too straightforward to be true? That’s because it is — although that didn’t stop 40 year old trader David Miller from trying the stunt back in 2012.