AAPL hits new closing high of $227.63, capping historic August for the company

AppleInsider

Apple, which began August by hitting $200 a share and crossing the trillion-dollar valuation mark the following day, hit another new all-time closing high of $227.63 on August 31.

The rally capped off an historic month for Apple, ahead of the expected arrival of a new iPhone lineup and other new hardware on Sept. 12. The price had reached as high as $228.78 on Friday morning.

The stock performance can best be attributed to lots of good news for the company and very little bad news.

On August 1, one day after a positive quarterly earnings report, Apple's stock hit $200 a share for the first time since the 2014 stock split. The next day, Apple became the first American company in history to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion.

Later in August, investor Warren Buffett announced that he had once again upped his Apple stake, and a leak appeared of two iPhone models that are expected as part of this fall's lineup of that key Apple product.

As a result, the stock climbed steadily throughout the month, from the $200 milestone on the 1st to $227.63 on the 31st. It's just the latest of several times this year Apple has broken its all-time high valuation.

eriamjh

DOOMED!!  

Bring on 2 Trillion...

lkrupp

One foot in the grave with the other foot on a banana peel. Another analyst today said that of the FAANG stocks Apple is the most worrisome. Any day now sales could collapse and would take services with it. Another day in the life of Apple.

chasm

For those not keeping track: this means the stock is up $63 per share from a year ago ($78 higher than its lowest point over the past year), an increase of over 39 percent. Not to mention that whole "most valuable publicly-traded company in history" and "largest payer of US corporate taxes" thing.

Clearly, Cook must resign.

techno

I wonder if we will start seeing some negative stories in lead up to "Gather round" event. Drive the price down, buy some shares and sell them when they go back up after the new products launch.

Cramer beware.

Muntz

techno said:

I wonder if we will start seeing some negative stories in lead up to "Gather round" event. Drive the price down, buy some shares and sell them when they go back up after the new products launch.

Cramer beware.

I'm already seeing a lot of irrational posts on the Apple subreddit, so probably. They're just warming up.

nunzy

Apple makes Wall Street rich!

gmgravytrain

It's nice how Apple has the market cap crown for a short while. By the end of September, Amazon will have stolen the market cap crown (like candy from a baby) and won't ever give it back. There's absolutely nothing Apple can do about it to get it back. Jeff Bezos is hungry while Tim Cook doesn't care one way or another if Apple doesn't have the highest market cap. If Apple had acquired a cloud computing business, they would have had a good chance of battling it out with AWS. Now, Apple has nothing. A tech company without a cloud computing business is like a race car driver without a race car. Wall Street has endless praise for companies with cloud computing businesses that are said to have unlimited growth potential. Apple never pays attention to what Wall Street values the most. Too bad for Apple shareholders. All the Apple bulls who laughed at Amazon not making profit will now have to watch as Amazon leaves Apple in the dust in terms of overall value.

SpamSandwich

Muntz said:

techno said:

I wonder if we will start seeing some negative stories in lead up to "Gather round" event. Drive the price down, buy some shares and sell them when they go back up after the new products launch.

Cramer beware.

I'm already seeing a lot of irrational posts on the Apple subreddit, so probably. They're just warming up.

You'll see the biggest negative spins show up here also, regrettably. Sometimes the negative stories are debunked, but too many of them (for my taste) end up being posted without critical analysis.

ramanpfaff

I enjoyed the 19.5% gain in just one month. My portfolio which is 90% AAPL has never looked so pretty. Diversify...yeah...that's what they always say. I took the opposite approach. So far, so good.

anantksundaram

lkrupp said:

One foot in the grave with the other foot on a banana peel. Another analyst today said that of the FAANG stocks Apple is the most worrisome. Any day now sales could collapse and would take services with it. Another day in the life of Apple.

But that same hypocrite analyst also said in the article that he’s holding on to his AAPL, and not selling. 

anantksundaram

Onward, and upward!

entropys

We are in the “buy on the rumour” phase. There will be the “sell on the news” phase Sept 13.

mwhite

gmgravytrain said:

It's nice how Apple has the market cap crown for a short while. By the end of September, Amazon will have stolen the market cap crown (like candy from a baby) and won't ever give it back. There's absolutely nothing Apple can do about it to get it back. Jeff Bezos is hungry while Tim Cook doesn't care one way or another if Apple doesn't have the highest market cap. If Apple had acquired a cloud computing business, they would have had a good chance of battling it out with AWS. Now, Apple has nothing. A tech company without a cloud computing business is like a race car driver without a race car. Wall Street has endless praise for companies with cloud computing businesses that are said to have unlimited growth potential. Apple never pays attention to what Wall Street values the most. Too bad for Apple shareholders. All the Apple bulls who laughed at Amazon not making profit will now have to watch as Amazon leaves Apple in the dust in terms of overall value.

Bezos is that you?????

ihatescreennames

gmgravytrain said:

It's nice how Apple has the market cap crown for a short while. By the end of September, Amazon will have stolen the market cap crown (like candy from a baby) and won't ever give it back. There's absolutely nothing Apple can do about it to get it back. Jeff Bezos is hungry while Tim Cook doesn't care one way or another if Apple doesn't have the highest market cap. If Apple had acquired a cloud computing business, they would have had a good chance of battling it out with AWS. Now, Apple has nothing. A tech company without a cloud computing business is like a race car driver without a race car. Wall Street has endless praise for companies with cloud computing businesses that are said to have unlimited growth potential. Apple never pays attention to what Wall Street values the most. Too bad for Apple shareholders. All the Apple bulls who laughed at Amazon not making profit will now have to watch as Amazon leaves Apple in the dust in terms of overall value.

Nice how you keep moving the goal posts in Amazon’s favor. In March it was Amazon is gonna get to $1T first. Too bad for you, they didn’t. Now the milestone has been met and it will be “Oh, now {name the company} has done it, too. Huh.”

I’ll say it again, market cap doesn’t mean anything except maybe bragging rights. 

For reference: https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/204514/apple-stock-price-sets-new-post-split-record-closing-at-179-98

MisterKit

Must have been those leaked photos of the upcoming lineup.

radarthekat

gmgravytrain said:

It's nice how Apple has the market cap crown for a short while. By the end of September, Amazon will have stolen the market cap crown (like candy from a baby) and won't ever give it back. There's absolutely nothing Apple can do about it to get it back. Jeff Bezos is hungry while Tim Cook doesn't care one way or another if Apple doesn't have the highest market cap. If Apple had acquired a cloud computing business, they would have had a good chance of battling it out with AWS. Now, Apple has nothing. A tech company without a cloud computing business is like a race car driver without a race car. Wall Street has endless praise for companies with cloud computing businesses that are said to have unlimited growth potential. Apple never pays attention to what Wall Street values the most. Too bad for Apple shareholders. All the Apple bulls who laughed at Amazon not making profit will now have to watch as Amazon leaves Apple in the dust in terms of overall value.

Seems you’ve got wrong thinking in a few areas.  First, market cap is meaningful only to someone wanting to purchase the entire company.  The rest of us can hope to own only a small percentage, and so what’s meaningful to us are per share metrics.  Fewer shares outstanding reduces the market cap (not meaningful to us) but also means the overall earnings [profits] get divided among fewer shares, so that means our share of the business is more profitable to us.  And it means the company has the means to increase its dividends per share faster, as Apple has been doing versus many other companies.  

As to cloud computing, Apple is one of the largest, if not the largest, in that space.  It’s just that they consume all of their own cloud services for use in serving their customers.  iCloud and Siri are huge,but Apple doesn’t rent its cloud so you don’t hear about it on Wall St.  What you also don’t hear is the comparison of Apple’s new businesses, like Apple Watch, Airpods, services, etc, to Amazon’s cloud.  Heck, I’d bet AppleCare brings in more revenue and profits and is growing faster than Amazon’s cloud.  Or if not AppleCare, then Apple Watch.  Where’s the respect for those businesses?  What makes cloud so magical?  And why aren’t you recognizing the contribution Apple’s cloud makes to its overall business of selling highly profitable hardware?  I suspect the reason is, you’re thinking is too simplistic and one-dimensional on this topic.  Are you a Wall St analyst?  Just asking.

quinney

gmgravytrain said:

It's nice how Apple has the market cap crown for a short while. By the end of September, Amazon will have stolen the market cap crown (like candy from a baby) and won't ever give it back. There's absolutely nothing Apple can do about it to get it back. Jeff Bezos is hungry while Tim Cook doesn't care one way or another if Apple doesn't have the highest market cap. If Apple had acquired a cloud computing business, they would have had a good chance of battling it out with AWS. Now, Apple has nothing. A tech company without a cloud computing business is like a race car driver without a race car. Wall Street has endless praise for companies with cloud computing businesses that are said to have unlimited growth potential. Apple never pays attention to what Wall Street values the most. Too bad for Apple shareholders. All the Apple bulls who laughed at Amazon not making profit will now have to watch as Amazon leaves Apple in the dust in terms of overall value.

AMZN just surpassed TSLA to become the most shorted stock.  Those short sellers are not passive about their bets.  You can expect to see lots of FUD propaganda about AMZN on an ongoing basis.  This might put a damper on the price rise of AMZN.

radarthekat

entropys said:

We are in the “buy on the rumour” phase. There will be the “sell on the news” phase Sept 13.

Buy the rumor, sell the news doesn’t move a stock like Apple has been moving.  What you’re seeing is a fundamental revaluing of the company going on.  Plus a mega buyback underway.  Plus Buffett continuing to buy.  Where this ends I can’t even guess.  

Product companies are are typically valued at 4x revenue.  Subscription based services businesses are typically valued at 7x revenues.  Apple’s been between 3-4x for many years.  This is why you’re seeing the stock rise daily, almost regardless of the overall market. 

Like Ramanpfaff (see his earlier comment), I’ve had between 75-90% of my net worth in Apple for a long time.  Only recently, almost begrudgingly, have I begun diversifying, now at 65% in Apple.  I’ve made over $1.5m in the stock since taking my first position in it in July 2011, just six weeks before Jobs stepped down from the CEO role.  If you look at the world’s billionaires, most made their money focused on one business, which they pursued with passion.  That’s what Ramanpfaff and I know and it’s served us well. 

linkman

ramanpfaff said:

I enjoyed the 19.5% gain in just one month. My portfolio which is 90% AAPL has never looked so pretty. Diversify...yeah...that's what they always say. I took the opposite approach. So far, so good.

I've been sitting on 100% AAPL for several years. Apple is finally getting the stock valuation that it deserves. I've actually made very little money on it so far (except for dividends) -- but I really expect to make quite a bit when I do sell.

aaploutsider

radarthekat said:

As to cloud computing, Apple is one of the largest, if not the largest, in that space.  It’s just that they consume all of their own cloud services for use in serving their customers.  iCloud and Siri are huge,but Apple doesn’t rent its cloud so you don’t hear about it on Wall St.  What you also don’t hear is the comparison of Apple’s new businesses, like Apple Watch, Airpods, services, etc, to Amazon’s cloud.  Heck, I’d bet AppleCare brings in more revenue and profits and is growing faster than Amazon’s cloud.  Or if not AppleCare, then Apple Watch.  Where’s the respect for those businesses?  What makes cloud so magical?  And why aren’t you recognizing the contribution Apple’s cloud makes to its overall business of selling highly profitable hardware?  I suspect the reason is, you’re thinking is too simplistic and one-dimensional on this topic.  Are you a Wall St analyst?  Just asking.

Just want to clear up some of your misconceptions. 

1.  Apple doesn't manage their own cloud for iCloud.  They use Google Cloud currently.  My educated guess why they are using GCP over AWS is because Google is trying to get into this domain and is trying to increase incentives for companies to start or jump ship on GCP.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/26/apple-confirms-it-uses-google-cloud-for-icloud.html
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/26/17053496/apple-google-cloud-platform-icloud-confirmation
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/your-apple-icloud-data-is-now-stored-on-google-servers-surprised/

2.  Regardless of revenue, Amazon Cloud is much larger than Apple's cloud solutions by just about every single facet.  They have many more engineers, have a broader reach into society, and literally serve a ton of Fortune 100 companies' infrastructure.  Apple won't ever "rent" their half-cloud services because that is not their forte.  They have never been a services company to anyone outside their ecosystem, and I'm sure if they tried, their inexperience could cause other major issues.

I guarantee you that 75% if not more of the applications/services you use on your Apple devices are actually served by clients on an AWS stack indirectly or directly.