AAPL - page 11

Earlier today, we reported that the Wall Street consensus was that Apple’s profit in this last quarter probably shrank for the first time in a decade, and that results will be even more dire next quarter, with iPhone sales units being extremely low.

But Wall Street’s pessimism in regards to Apple is, as usual, nuts. For Apple to perform as low as Wall Street thinks it will next quarter, Apple would have to show zero growth in the iPhone market compared to the same spring quarter a year ago. This would rank it as one of the smartphone industry’s worst disasters ever. Which is crazy, because Apple’s selling more iPhones than ever.

Last year it seemed like there was no end in sight for the rise of Apple’s stock price. Then things started to slip in October thanks to Apple Maps and the management shakeup, and it’s been all downhill from there.

Earlier this morning Apple shares were trading below $400 for the first time in over 16 months, as the stock has continued to slide from its high point of over $700 per share that it enjoyed just last year.

The consensus on Wall Street seems to be unanimous: for the first time in decade, Apple will report lower income this quarter than it did the year before. But don’t panic: even Wall Street doesn’t think Apple’s era of profitability and innovation is at an end.

With Apple stock seemingly in free fall, a new report suggests that Apple is going to announce a plan to return additional value to shareholders as soon as this spring, either by increasing the existing dividend or by buying back stock from investors.

Andy Zaky has been one of the most famous independent Apple analysts for years. The self-taught, 33-year-old investor has offered some of the most wildly accurate predictions on Wall Street, and in the past he’s been pretty spot on with his bullish calls to buy AAPL stock.

But something happened to Apple’s stock value after hitting its September 2012 high of $700+ per share. It suddenly plummeted, and it has continued to decrease for the past 5-6 months. Speculation abounds, but no one has been able to pinpoint exactly why AAPL has been—and still is—taking such a beating.

As you can imagine, many investors have lost a lot of money betting on Apple’s success over the past several months, and morale is weakening on Wall Street. Zaky is one of the best examples of how incorrectly predicting Apple’s stock value can have grave consequences.

Famed investor and philanthropist Warren Buffet stopped by CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, and the Berkshire Hathaway head had some interesting thoughts on what Apple should do with its cash: by back all of its stock from investors, just like Warren Buffett told Steve Jobs to do years ago.

Rumors are swirling that Apple, a company which has been having a rocky time on Wall Street lately despite reporting their most profitable quarter ever, might announce a decision to issue a stock split tomorrow at their next shareholder meeting, to be held tomorrow.

A New York judge has ruled in favor of David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and blocked an AAPL shareholder vote that would limit Apple’s ability to give preferred stock options to investors. The ruling comes after Greenlight held a meeting yesterday with shareholders to explain the ideas behind its “iPrefs” stock proposal.

Apple shareholders were scheduled to vote on limiting preferred stock next Wednesday, but a preliminary injunction has been granted that stops the vote from taking place.

In addition to forecasting that Apple would double existing investor dividends to 6% by borrowing low-interest cash domestically. Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty walked away from her recent meeting with another conviction: that a cheaper ‘iPhone mini’ aimed at emerging markets was extremely likely

With AAPL stock in decline, investors are rioting to get a piece of Apple’s $137.1 billion cash horde. Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn, of course, has been making waves with his lawsuit against Apple and his proposal that Apple issue an ‘iPref’ preferred dividend to investors; now, Morgan Stanley Katy Huberty has come out of a meeting with Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, apparently convinced that Apple will more than double its existing dividend to investors to 6%.

Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn is a very influential Wall Street investor who is going after Apple for proposing to allegedly eliminate preferred stock options from AAPL shareholders. Apple recently started issuing small dividends to investors, and preferred stock would entitle investors to fixed dividends instead of the fluctuating common-stock dividends.

Einhorn and Greenlight Capital will hold a conference call today with interested Apple investors to discuss their ideas on how Apple should use its massive cash pile.

Apple has been treading lightly with Wall Street in recent months. The company’s stock has continued to nosedive despite reporting record earnings for the last quarter. Many investors have been urging Apple to do something with its $137 billion cash hoard. Shareholders want a return on their investments.

Greenlight Capital, a prominent and influential Apple investor, has called Apple out for its proposal to eliminate preferred stock. Apple started paying a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share last year, but investors want something more substantial. Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn believes that “preferred shares would be a way to reward investors without putting the company at risk.”

Apple has officially responded with a press release:

It’s hard to forget the day that Apple surpassed Exxon Mobil to become the most valuable publicly traded company in the world. But a lot has happened to Apple’s stock since August of 2011. AAPL has ridden a chaotic roller coaster on the stock market. After announcing a record holiday quarter Wednesday with $54.5 billion in revenue and $13.1 billion in profits, AAPL dropped more than 10%. That’s more than $50 billion in market cap gone in a day. Poof.

Apple’s stock isn’t doing so hot, and after over a year in second place, today marks the day that Exxon Mobil dethroned Apple on Wall Street.

And that’s ok. This doesn’t mean that the company is doomed.

Apple has just announced it’s best quarter EVER, but the stock is taking a pounding on Wall Street.

Apple announced earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2013: $54.5 billion and a net profit of $13.1 billion. But the stock is down more than 4% in after-hours trading because Wall Street is worried that Apple’s phenomenal growth is slowing. Don’t you love how a record-breaking quarter is still considered an “ouch?”

Apple was expected to report decent numbers despite the public’s perception that Apple’s streak of runaway sales of iPhones and iPads is plateauing. AAPL has been falling due to a number of factors, including analysts’ low predictions for the next March 2013 quarter. Apple is printing money, but not fast enough for Wall Street.

There have also been reports that Apple has cut back supply orders for the iPhone due to weakening demand, but iPhone sales are still up from 30 million last quarter.

Here are some of the key points from Apple’s Q1:

Apple will announce its quarterly earnings for the 2012 holiday season tomorrow, and investors are nervous. The company’s stock has been on quite the roller coaster ride since its $700 high back in September 2012. AAPL is now trading right around $500, which is the lowest it has been in more than six months.

Recent reports have said that demand for products like the iPhone is faltering. That’s why it may come as a surprise that Wall Street expects Apple to have its best earnings report ever tomorrow. So is it a good time to sell AAPL? Now may actually be the best time to buy.

No one tell former Vice President Al Gore that it’s a bad time to buy AAPL. He just exercised a big chunk of his Apple stock options, walking off with $29 million worth of shares at a steep discount.

Think back to your life 10 years ago. Now think about this: if you would have invested $10,000 in Microsoft stock then, you would now have $13,000. If you would have invested the same amount into Apple, you would now be sitting on $700,000.

Really let that sink in.

Steve Jobs was passionate about a lot of things: simplicity, challenging the status quo, creating products that people loved, etc. He was a man of many shining strengths and deep personality flaws. As one of the most dynamic titans to ever grace the tech industry, one can only imagine what Jobs would think of Apple in 2012. How would he have handled Mapgate? We’ll never know.

Based on what we do know about the late CEO, there are several things Jobs would have definitely been proud of at Apple in 2012.

Apple stock has been climbing rapidly towards $700 per share since the iPhone 5 was announced Wednesday, September 12th. Now, less than a week after the announcement from Apple, AAPL has hit $700 in after hours trading, marking an all-time high.

Despite iPhone 5 naysayers, Apple remains the most valuable company in the world by a large margin.

Apple announced a $45 billion stock dividend and repurchase plan back in March, and the company starts paying its investors today, August 16th. $2.65 per share will be payed out for all owned shares of record as of Monday, August 13th.

Today marks the first dividend Apple has payed out since 1995. If you own Apple stock, you should see the payment deposited in your brokerage account before the day is over.

According to Barron’s today, Apple tops the list of tech companies keeping large amounts of cash reserves overseas. Barron’s quotes Moody’s Investor Services as estimating Apple’s overseas cash supply at $74 billion, which is higher than the $64 billion of last year.

Apple isn’t the only technology company sending cash and other liquid investments out of the country, of course. Microsoft comes in second place with an estimated $50 billion in cash, while Cisco and Oracle are estimated to have $42.3 and $25.1 billion socked away in cash, respectively.

Not only does Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster see Apple’s and its investors’ financial outlook as essentially rosy for the foreseeable future, but he’s taking it one step further. He’s convinced that he has at least ten reasons to stay bullish on Apple stock over the next three years. He also thinks the stock price is going to hit $1000 per share.

After Wednesday’s wild ride, Apple’s stock price was down even lower yesterday – trading around $530 (it’s still in that range this morning). That price prompted Andy Zaky of Bullish Cross to issue a rare buy rating for the Apple’s stock.

This is only the fifth time that Zaky has publishing a buy rating for Apple. The last time was nearly a year ago on June 20 when Apple bottomed at $310.50 a share ahead of a strong July rally that in which it grew by 30%.

Sometimes just a few words can make humongous impact – something that DoubleLine Capital’s Jeffrey Gundlach proved spectacularly Wednesday afternoon when a statement he made caused Apple’s market value to drop 2.2% – an acceleration of a much milder downward  trend that Apple’s stock has been on since its record high in early April. Gundlach comments added to that trend, causing Apple stock to plummet so much that it is down $96 billion since April 9th.

For those that weren’t following Apple’s stock price on Wednesday, just after 3 p.m. Apple’s stock price dropped sharply by 2.2% to just over $540. That’s about when Gundlach took the stage at a meeting of hedge fund managers in New York and said that he was shorting Apple because he didn’t see the company being able to sustain the massive consumer excitement generated by the new iPad and other hit products.

Third wealthiest man in the world, Warren Buffett, known for his tremendous investment success as well as his high-end philanthropy, told a group of investors at the Berkshire annual meeting that he had no interest in investing in Apple (or Google), seeing them as risky investments.