Apple sinks again, but bright spots emerge

“Apple sank 2.4% today, bringing its losses past 6% in the past two days,” Eric Bleeker writes for The Motley Fool. “Stretch your timeline back a bit further to the day the iPhone 5 was released and losses now stand at 23% in less than two months.”

“Yet, for all the negativity, there were some positives coming out of the smartphone space that could reflect on the strength of Apple heading into the holiday season,” Bleeker writes. “The iPhone 5 underperformed versus expectations in its opening weekend, but that was largely due to supply constraints. Its shipping times have stubbornly stayed at three to four weeks even as the phone has been on the market for months.”

Bleeker writes, “Apple’s earnings were a slight disappointment, but they came in a quarter where the iPhone had limited availability. The real test will come next quarter when a full quarter of iPhone sales are recorded.Then we have the Mini, which despite some quibbles with its screen, has largely garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews and whose opening weekend sales surpassed estimates in spite of once again being supply constrained. Finally, while Forstall created iOS, most reports from inside the company indicated he’d become a divisive figure. Not only that, but many of his recent initiatives (Maps, Siri) were underwhelming.”

Bleeker writes, “The most positive news today surrounding Apple was earnings from Qualcomm… Qualcomm’s central licensing position allows the company to have great visibility into the smartphone industry. So, the company projecting revenue next year ranging from $23 billion to $24 billion speaks well to the continuing growth of smartphones.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]

27 Comments

  1. It’s all about the fiscal standoff and the republicans having abtemper tantrum. They’ll fall on theor swords to save the bilkionares…hahaha I bet they won’t because if they do they will put the nail in the coffin two years from now, when they get swept outbof relevance completely.

    Apple has proven recession proof throught all the last 10 -12 years. Apple has the best quality, long lasting and working products with the best software integration of any company .
    Apple has no competition when it comes to quality, value and user experience.

    Apple will come roaring back to make any serious investor that gets in at these fire sale prices rich.

    Apple will come back soon because fundamentally, there is nothing wrong with it. It has no bedt and more money in the bank than the treasury.

    Think never mind, Think Different…

    1. So it is your expert opinion that reason Appl is tanking is because Republicans are throwing a tantrum and not because investors ($ is party blind) know capital gains taxes are going to go up?

      Sorry, I just want to make sure I understand you . So, the market is in the sh!tter because of a hissy fit?

      More than half of America voted for President Obama, yet American investor are willing to lose their life savings to throw a tantrum?

      You must be a tenured school teacher.

        1. OMG. If you really think that Marxism has anything to do with the current political or financial situation in this country, you are the moron. If you don’t, you’re simply spreading utterly irrelevant FUD. There was a referendum on the GOP’s extremist ideas on Tuesday night. You lost. Get used to it.

        2. From each according to ability and to each according to need.

          joebloggs I am afraid (literally) that you (and breeze) are truly clueless as to the ideas and origins of the current socialist movement in the US.

      1. People are scared that the Bush Tax cuts will expire and their lives will be impacted by huge tax increases other than cap gains…

        Then, The “fiscal cliff”, which is  a bluff they’ll never live down. We know how much ks really care about the rest of the country – zip nada. 
        Wake up ks your time is up – change or be stamped out. The ks will continue to hold working people ransom with scare tactics to pressure Obama against increasing taxes on the very rich.

         “Apple won’t be able to sell it’s products if people don’t have money because of tax increases resulting from  the Bush tax cuts expiring”…Bullshit, taxes will revert the the same rate they were in Clinton years where everyone made money…  Not only is that FUD that they think will give them leverage on the president’s plans to increase taxes on the very rich, but it’s  another implicit scare… one that’s supposed to scare Apple shareholders into a panic sell to add to other Apple FUD , only to buy back into a windfall… We’ve seen this underhanded shit before when W came in.  Selfish greed.

        1. And raising taxes to the level they were during the Clinton years will accomplish what exactly? Bid deal, so taxes went up. The deficit will still be at least a TRILLION dollars again next year. It’s a ruse. The only thing that will save this country now is if the SPENDING went back to Clinton era levels!!!

        2. Raising taxes on those that can afford to pay more, because they have so many other write offs that make them rich, will help substantially.

          As for the actual deficits, talk to W about the iraq war costing 30 billion a month for all those years – that’s the lion share of America’s deficits that started with him. When he came in we had surlpuses.

        3. “Raising taxes on those that can afford to pay more, because they have so many other write offs that make them rich, will help substantially.”

          No, it won’t help. First, raising taxes on those that can afford it is like taking a bucket of water from the deep end of a pool and pouring it in the shallow end of the same pool. There is no redistribution nor benefit. Second, taking money from the private sector, to let the government do what it wants, is taking money out of the economy because government doesn’t produce anything but stifling rules and regulations. Third, the government didn’t earn or took a risk to make that money so they have a hell of a nerve thinking they can have at that money any time they want for them to pay their illegal exploits. They already have an over One Trillion dollar budget which is more then enough. Besides, do you think that even if they tax the rich that the money collected will go toward deficit reduction?! Then you really don’t know government! They won’t even kill of a big yellow bird. Those political morons have never cut a program except defense. What proof do you have that they have done this in the past? I know when George Bush’s father said ‘read my lips, no new taxes’ and broke that ‘promise’ it was only because he agreed to raise taxes for cuts in government by the Democrats who controlled Congress. Well, he raised taxes but the Democrats didn’t make cuts in government. Never trust a Liberal, they lie like a rug, ALL THE TIME!

          As for the wars… Defense of this nation is primary whether you agree with the legitimacy of the war is another issue, but its decree is in the Constitution. Free birth control and Obamacare are not! Neither is the ‘War on Poverty’ and how many trillions has the nation wasted on THAT war?!

          And no there were no Clinton surpluses! You can keep thinking that or do some research…

          http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_surplus_did_the_US_have_when_Clinton_left_office

          http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/craigsteiner/2011/08/22/the_clinton_surplus_myth/page/full/

          http://www.carolinacoastonline.com/news_times/opinions/editorials/article_eed393de-a0f6-11e1-8a86-0019bb2963f4.html

        4. The war was blessed by Congress who continued to fund it all those years. Why didn’t the Dems have the courage to cut the funds off. After all Afghanistan will revert to its tribal ways as soon as US leaves. Been that way for centuries through many “occupations”.

        5. Blesssed is dfinately the wrong word… Gongress was tricked and he world was lied to…wreriting history will not work the country has changed and so have the times – change or become irrelevant to the degreee of – shut down.

        6. You realize that the upper 5% of wage earners pay over half half (around 60%) of all the income tax?
          (and have done so for decades)
          And that the bottom half (50%) pay ~3% of the total income tax? (and have so for decades)

          Any way you slice it; (top 10% income pay around 70%, or, how about top 25% pay over 85% ) the class warfare propaganda pushed by the “new left” doesn’t really jive with the reality of the situation.

          What happened to the real democratic party’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” It has been replaced with promises of “free” healthcare and free cellphones.

    1. Yes, a nice $400 stock giving the company a forward P/E of 6 (or about 4 ex-cash). That makes a lot of sense for what is still the fastest growing large company in the world, right?

      Sheesh…

  2. Apple capitalization lost 23% in TWO MONTHS?

    People need to think back to the dark days when Apple lost 45% IN A SINGLE DAY!

    Yes, Cook needs to fix the truly horrendous supply problem. Yes, Apple needs to start wowing people again. But, these are by far NOT the worst times for Apple’s stock.

  3. I think investors are expecting taxes on Capitol gains to go up next year. The current 15 percent rate is scheduled to expire and go to 20 or more (I think). So some people with large cap gains probably wanted to realize them before the rate goes up. The economy may be slowing and Apple has had some stumbles lately including two quarters with disappointing results. I’m bullish long term but the short term looks dicey.

    1. Capital gains will increase no matter what. The “Bush” tax cuts expiring will bring capital gains from 15% to 20%. The “Unaffordable Care Act”, otherwise known as ObamaCare will increase capital gains an additional 3.8%. So we will have either 18.8% or 23.8% rates on capital gains.

  4. What? The Fool gives aapl a realistic AND positive outlook. I’m old now but at least I lived long enough to see it happen. There was a day not so long ago when The Fool could not, under any circumstances, bring itself to say one single positive thing about the stock, even as Apple’s jet engines were in full thrust and it was very clear to the most investually illiterate that we were seeing the meteoric rise of a rare-gem of a unusually well run company.

    Apple has an interesting way of doing thing’s the right way (as a corporation), and I think that’s why Tim was chosen, because he understands how to run Apple. No he’s not the illuminated design visionary that SJ was, but think about it, who is? Really, look around, who is or even could be, and be an amazing entrepenuer too? Yes, there are and have been people at Apple who are extraordinary at specific things, but no one is going to be a SJ, not at Apple or anywhere else. Does that mean the end of Apple? Of course not. It just means that in true Apple fashion, things will be different, and for Apple that has always been and always will be a good thing.

    For those of us who’ve bought into Apple for high risk short term gains it may well be time to see Apple as well-settled into the market place, which may be a sign that we need to shift gears and begin to see Apple more as a good solid component of a well rounded portfolio and less as a get-rich-quick venue.

    Whatever the case… My opinion is that we need to all stop being Wall Street Sheep, and we all need to stop being the sheep of the current politico. Let’s get our individual heads screwed back on straight, and stop buying into this self purpetuating panic about everything so that we can more clearly see where we should be going.

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