Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s “stellar operating performance finally has catapulted the company into the No. 1 spot in the Barron’s 500, up from No. 2 in 2012 and No. 4 in 2011,” Jacqueline Doherty writes for Barron’s. “Apple has shown what it takes — terrific sales growth and wisely deployed cash flow — to be a winner in our annual ranking, which seeks to identify businesses that have done the best job of investing for growth.”
“To be sure, investors have grown fearful that Apple’s magic won’t last — so fearful that they knocked the stock down to $450 from $705 last September, erasing $239 billion from the company’s market value,” Doherty writes. “But before pronouncing the creator of iPods, iPhones, and iPads a has-been, or even just an ordinary company, let’s pause to acknowledge its triumph over a tough crowd of competitors in landing at the top of our list.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’ stock has risen from a low of 387.97 on Apr 19, 2013 to close at $449.98 on Friday, May 3rd. In pre-market trading today, AAPL is currently up another $6.36 to $456.34.
Doherty writes, “The iMaestro delivered a 44.6% bounce in revenue, to $157 billion, in the fiscal year ended in September 2012. Free cash flow totaled $42.7 billion, and the free-cash-flow yield, an impressive 27%. That’s a lotta gadgets. Apple’s outperformance owed to the momentum of its twin product families, with iPhone unit sales rising 73%, to 125 million units, and iPad unit sales up 80%, to 58 million; iPhones accounted for 51% of revenue, and iPads, 20%.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
BOOM !
It’s about time someone in the financial world saw through the FUD.
I’m thinking the tide is finally turning in Apple’s favour.
Thank you for manipulating this stock down until after tax day so we could all load up again. I thought I was going to miss super discount AAPL, bud the FUD was kind to me.
This is a great way to look at it. If you are looking to buy in, opportunity presented itself due to the disconnect between Wall Street nonsense and financial reality, as illustrated by Barron’s.
If you are a long term holder, as I am, due to belief in what they do, who would possibly care about what was happening in the Spring of 2013? When the stock is 2,000 ten years from now, nobody will remember this nonsense or give a shit if they did remember it.
As a long term holder, you should be used to these total nonsensical pullbacks that happen to AAPL. Just be glad it’s not trading in the boring GOOG channel that doesn’t seem to ever move too much.
I am. Good point.
Reading this summary brings back to my mind the concept of the stockholder as ENTERTAINMENT CONSUMER. It’s sort of like kids watching cartoons. They start going all manic when the mouse is bashing the cat on the head. Equate that with a stock buying binge. Then the big fat lady who owns the cat comes home and the mayhem comes to a halt. The kids are quiet again, getting kind of bored. Equate that with dumping the stock, waiting for the mayhem to start again.
IOW: Whapping the AAPL price up and down corresponds to how much Apple the company is providing excitement to the crowd. Apparently, this ‘entertain me’ mandate is part of our 21st Century western culture. Childish. Low attention span. Escapist. Little connection to living IRL. Bizarro.
So who’s going to write the PhD. dissertation? 😉
In the Fortune 500, which is the more important measurement, Apple has moved from number 17 last year, to number 6 now. I’m more impressed by that. I don’t understand how Barron figures this out, as there are much bigger US based companies than Apple, and Exxon edged Apple out in profits last year as well.
And the Mac is only 14% unfortunately.