Apple Haters Put In Perspective
Last week, Apple (AAPL) crushed it with its latest quarterly report. Riding on the success of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the tech giant turned in a net quarterly profit of $18 billion. If that number alone doesn’t impress you, let me add that it’s the largest profit ever recorded by a U.S. company. According to the Wall Street Journal, it’s “more than 435 of the companies in the S&P 500 index (SPY) each made in total profits since 2009.” Additionally, 74.5 million iPhones were sold during the quarter, coming out to be about 34,000 sold per hour. Apple is also poised to take back the reigns from Samsung (SSNLF) as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer.
Do I need to keep going? Nah, I think you get the picture.
Bears Not Letting Up
According to this Forbes article, there still exists Apple bears out there. One of them, Adnaan Ahmad, goes so far as to give Apple stock a $60 target price (It currently sits at $119.56). His reason?
“The issue we see here is that now that consumers have these ‘apparently amazing’ iPhone 6/6+s, with better batteries and larger screens, this propensity to upgrade will probably be lower than it was in this past cycle. All all else being equal, 2016 could be an absolutely treacherous year for iPhone volumes and Apple’s earnings, given the disproportionate revenue and margin impact of this product.”
One issue I can agree with Ahmad on is Apple’s increasing dependence on the iPhone. Revenues from the phone made up 69% of total revenue last quarter. On the other hand, revenue from the Mac and iPad businesses made up 9.3% and 12% of revenue respectively.
It’s important now that Apple reconsider Steve Jobs’ three-legged stool strategy, which was basically to have a core of three strong products. A few years ago, it was the iPhone, the iPad and the Mac. But with the numbers waning on the latter two, it would behoove Tim Cook to get back to the drawing board. The only problem is that the Apple Watch definitely isn’t going to be one of those cornerstone products, meaning Apple needs to find a way to revitalize the iPad and Mac segments, or get back to innovating.
Putting It All in Perspective
In spite of Ahmad’s main point, however, the fact is that this is not as good as it’s going to get. The Internet was plastered with that rhetoric after Steve Jobs passed away. It was plastered with it once the iPad began its decline. Heck, it was the truth for a long time as Apple struggled to find its way before Jobs came back on board in the late 90s and began building the foundation for Apple as we now know it.
No, Apple is not done. The iPhone will keep getting better and better—maybe not with each new model, but the evolution over time is certainly going to continue to be refined.
But even if Apple doesn’t continue astounding us each quarter with eye-popping growth, I gather that investors would be just as interested in a plateaued Apple with a healthy dividend. Regardless, Apple’s not going anywhere but up
Disclosure: None
For all the lovers of Apple (myself included), it might look like the stock is feeling a little downtrodden right now. Last October, Carl Icahn said the stock should hit over $203, but in order to do that, it would have to aggressively increase its stock repurchasing. To lessen one's dependence on Apple, these tech ETFs don't just rely on Apple but on a wider spectrum of companies just for good measure; Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK), PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ), and the iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW).