“To characterize Apple’s first-quarter earnings as excellent is the epitome of understatement. In the first three months of the year, profit ballooned by 88%, to $770 million. The per-share earnings of 87 cents made Wall Street forecasts of 64 cents to 67 cents look downright conservative… There’s reason to expect the good times to last. Demand for Macintoshes and iPods is robust, and the forthcoming iPhone music-playing wireless device is expected to be a huge sales catalyst,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.
Hesseldahl reports, “Indeed, it would appear that everyone loves Apple these days, if not for the likes of Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner. He’s covered Apple for about 10 years, and even as his counterparts at other firms gushed, Gardner urged caution: Hold the Apple stock you have, but don’t buy any more, for now.”
“It’s probably not right to describe Gardner as ‘bearish’ on Apple. ‘To be clear, we have no issue with medium- to long-term fundamentals on Apple,’ he says in his note. ‘Our modeling simply suggests that forthcoming products like the iPhone are fairly reflected,” in earnings estimates,'” Hesseldahl reports.
Hesseldahl reports, “His argument is simple: Much of the good news that investors can expect from Apple, whether it’s related to the iPhone, AppleTV, Macs, or iPods, is already accounted for in the stock price.”
Full article here.
Nah. Bean counters can’t assess the affects of a tilt in the earth’s orbit. OS X is coming in and Vista is going out.
Measure that one Citorp.
err… I may have meat to say ‘axix’. But you know what I mean.
I’m outta here..
Interesting take…perhaps.
But as the MDN word says: Time will “tell”.
Don’t leave! Comeback!
You know it seems to me that these guys act like they have some special angle on , and that they know something no one else sees.
If the iPhone goes nuts the stock price will raise. If it just sits there the stock will lose some value.
So what do these guys have (info wise) for us… NOTHING! as in thanks for nothing.
And when they are way off base they can hurt a company and I’ll bet that they have buried some companies, F***in jerks.
@Macaday,
You inspired me, if I ever had the opportunity to name a rock band, I would name it:
Meat Axix Citorp
Excellent
MDN please iCal this so we can go after them when they are proved wrong.
Is the prospect of Apple obtaining 25%+ of the desktop market in the current price? No. That’s why it’s a no-brainer tp see aapl @ $300-$800+ in five years. Wake-up fools.
“so we can go after them”
I’ll stockpile torches if you can get a deal on pitchforks. Deal?
To Gardner:
Smart investors buy and HOLD for the LONG TERM. Repeat, buy and hold for the long term.
Have you ever heard of Warren Buffet? He (and Peter Lynch of Magellin fame) say buy and hold for the long term. I think AAPL by all measures fits that, doesn’t it? Continual buying and selling usually only benefits the brokerage firms and the genuses that work there.
Yeh right, while they privately tout the stock to their insider clients
How can one be sure all the good news is in the stock when the economics of the iPhone are still unknown. When Apple announces that they will get maybe $5 per month per iPhone user, ALL the earnings estimates will go up. Wait for it…and watch it unfold. WORD.
La-la-la-la. Heresy. La-la-la-la. Blasphemy. La-la-la-la. Apostasy. La-la-la-la.
Hell, I need to get a life.
Bla, bla, bla,….same old story from these analists.
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TMF… fergit pitchforks and torches, how about sending them Vista for punishment?
There’s a reason why they are called analysts–they are anal in evrythign they do.
What does he say about Microsoft?
Jim – TIV: And then wrap they sorry, li’l heads in Ballmer’s discarded work shirts? That’ll learn ’em.
MW: blood (curdling screams)
The 24 month income recognition plan does not mean that the revenue deferred will not become a deferred asset on the balance sheet. The market will determine the number of units sold, within the supply constraint. It is hard to imagine that the supply will keep up with the demand. The only fly in the ointment will be if the phone doesn’t work as advertised. Presumably the related development costs will be written off as well over the 24 month period. Inevitably, revenue will be smoothed by this process, lessening the volatility factor caused by quarterly reporting. Can Apple defer its corporate income taxes as well? My guess is they are going to try.
People who listen to analyst also use Windows, and deserve what they get for their stupidity.