A huge stock price and with no dividend, a cult following, the largest technology company ever (even bigger then Microsoft in its heyday), a company that comes out with a $500 device (ipad) and they cannot keep it in their stores (in this economy), continually blows past their quarterly marks, considered more than innovators and more like Jedi Knights. This is what people used to call Macintosh.
Will it continue? Will there be something great that comes out and knocks it off its block? It won’t be the Amazon kindle (not when Amazon is losing money on the kindle per device [costs them $201.50 and sells it for $199.99]). Apple makes $200 per Ipad (so $300 to produce). Of main concern with Apple should not be the iphone or the ipad, it should be the itunes store itself. This is the anchor to the enormous ship they built called the USS Apple. Amazon has tried to catch up with the android store and delivering their own video content. But we all know that the itunes store is far superior to anything out there, especially with the introduction of the icloud. The icloud makes you want to buy more content thru the itunes store because you can now have it saved indefinitely and put it on any of your devices (wirelessly nonetheless). Nevertheless, Apple is a retailer; they do have to sell products to meet their bottom line. Will the product cycle for Apple hit a dry spell soon? Did Mr. Jobs leave this Earth giving all he could? Has the pipeline been dried out so to speak?
Then you can look at a company like Exxon Mobil. It is fair to compare Apple to Exxon because of the sheer volume of sales and market capitalization. Recently, in brief periods here and there, Apple has been larger than Exxon by market cap. Apple was the largest company in the world. But, Apple gives no dividend; Exxon gives $1.88 a year plus a little over 2% yield. To think that Apple can go toe to toe with an entity that literally produces the lifeblood of the world is quite bold to say at the least. Apple is the high-end retailer of electronics. A country club if you will. Nobody needs Apple products, but most people can’t live without them, or think they can’t. In order for the global economy to function there has to be crude oil, has to be! You need oil whether you like it or not. So for there to be someone out there larger then a company that produces a resource that is vital to day to day life, wouldn’t you say that’s impressive?
A week ago or so an analyst came out and put a $665 price target on Apple. This means that if Apple were to reach that price their market capitalization would be $617.8 Billion (929.4 million shares X $665 per share). To think that they could be roughly $200 Billion larger then the largest oil company on the planet is completely and totally mind-boggling. Is it possible for Apple to really be worth that much? We all know Exxon will keep raking in their normal record-breaking profits at around $20 Billion a quarter. Are in we a time where a technology company is more vital to the global economy then a resource that runs the economy single handedly?
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