brucemc

YvLy said:

How low can you go? Are there NO values left in this world. Integrity? Pride? Honesty?

I am afraid very little.  Just look at a lot of posts on this forum.

This is the kind of analysis that both "analysts" and "the media" are incapable of doing, it would seem.  

MplsP said:

Apple has done a great job of building an incredible machine that really only excels at content consumption. They tout the processor power, etc, but what's the point if you can do little more than surf the web and compose e-mails? On top of that, Apple's own productivity apps don't even have feature parity with the desktop versions with some critical features missing. 

The 12" iPad Pro is an impressive machine, but if you're going to expect people to pay $1500 then it damned well better have the same capabilities as the laptops you sell for the same price. For now, there's precious little benefit beyond what you get with the plain iPad for $$900 less.

You should read the comments of this thread to understand how some are using it for "productivity" purposes.

tzeshan said:

red oak said:

My model shows Apple buying back 50% of its shares (6.6 billion originally) by 2026.  They are effectively taking half the company off the market.  The analysts don’t even realize the scope of this effort 

My hope is they use this stock downturn to be super aggressive buying.  The forward PE  less net cash is now below 12

Buy back shares has a negative effect on AAPL. It drops AAPL market cap. 

Investors care about the share price, not the market cap.

Xaviercross1971 said:

Buying back stock is a good short term way of increasing stock value as is continuing to raise prices.  Neither is a good way for long term growth.  They need to find the next big thing and reach Asia, not buy their own stock. The reality is 10 years from now China and India will be the economic powers in the world.  Raising prices and buying back stock does nothing to grow those markets.  Apple has reached it's peak here in the states.  Nobody is switching OS's anymore.  Either your an Apple person or your not.  If Apple wants to continue to grow, it needs to figure out a way to compete overseas.  The more it raises prices to make the bottom line look good, that harder it is to compete in Asia.  

My sense is Tim Cook is only concerned about the short term.  He'll do what he can to keep the stock high as possible during his term.  However, they'll be long term mistakes.  Cook will be Apple's Steve Ballmer. 

Perfect example of yesterday thinking.  Hate to break it to you, but we have been reading this same meme for the last decade with Apple, but somehow their approach is successful in creating the most valuable public company in the world, spinning off the most cash ever, with the highest rates of customer satisfaction in every industry they play in.

Share buybacks have a mixed history in the industry, as it pertains to long term value creation, true.  But you have to look at the different circumstances.  In many cases, the companies are taking on debt to fund the buybacks, whereas Apple is using excess cash (even when they issued debt, it was offset on their balance sheet with growth in overseas cash).  Apple simply can only wisely use so much cash - it is a horrible problem to have!!  Buying up shares is reducing the count, meaning the earnings-per-share (a VERY important metric to share price valuation) go up.  It really is that simple.  And the ramp up in Apple stock over the last 12 months is evidence of that.

Apple is clearly investing in the future, as we can see.  They are investing in (music, video) services.  They are investing in health market.  They have the leading wearables platform, with Apple Watch and AirPods.  They are most likely heavily investing in the next wearable - smart glasses.  They are investing in autonomous systems & transportation.  They invest in each of their existing major product lines.  But you can only invest so much.  And - thank god! - Apple is smart enough to avoid huge value destructive purchases that fail about 80% of the time.  Apple's culture - producing this most successful of companies - would not fit well with large acquisitions.  

You can go on-and-on about prices as much as you want, but the truth is Apple is pricing their products at what they can sell them at.  Keeping prices, or raising them, is incredibly difficult and requires you to add value - which Apple is doing.  Lowering prices is simple, and if that is required, Apple knows how to do that.  They always can if necessary in the future.  Apple's installed base of iOS is probably about 1/3 that of Android, and vastly more valuable.  There is simply no need to destroy that value to chase some low end at this time.

Finally, there are many lower priced Apple products for sale - from the "grey market".  I can go and buy a good quality, 1-year old iPhone for mid-market prices ($300-$500) from any number of retailers or private resell.  I can get a 2-year old phone for a good bit less than that.  All of which will work on the latest OS with better performance than a similarly priced new Android device.