Any fellow Pigs have an opinion on Apple (AAPL)? I’ve bought some quite some time ago at between 45 and 65 (unfortunately, not enough!) and the same reasons I bought then would seem to hold true today.
1. Low P/E ~11
2. Decent Dividend ~2%
3. Lots of cash on hand, high margins, all sorts of good financials 🙂
4. Captive, loyal (insane?) customer base.
#4 is debatable and I seek opinions. Do folks still think iPhones are “must haves”? Or are they only popular with the old farts like me and other folks have moved on? As anecdotal evidence, I offer that the Apple store in Fashion Valley is still packed all the time, although perhaps not quite so packed as in the past (2009 – 2013). Back then, I remember worrying I was going to get trampled to death and had to take a break and visit the Microsoft store, where one could have a football game without risking hurting anyone.
Frankly, looking at just the stats, it seems like a no brainer to load up on the stock. Compared to other tech companies (intc, msft, amzn) the p/e and dividend, and other financials are fantastic. It would seem to be valued as an old, established company (ford, boeing) with the possibility of some breakout growth due to new products or new sales in asia/africa
By nagging worry is that in tech, fashions can and do change quickly, and once unassailable behemoths can fall quickly (Blackberry, Atari).
The problem is that most companies stock prices don’t do so well as they transition from a growth company to a value company. So while you aren’t probably looking at a bunch of downside buying apple here I don’t know that you are looking at a bunch of upside either at least in the short term. Look at an old chart of KO, MSFT, CSCO, GE. Seems like once these companies make a top in growth they decline/stay flat for quite some time until the value investors take over the stock.
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