“What’s Apple really worth? That’s the $150 billion question and the crux of a simmering debate between Apple fans, Apple customers, Apple investors and Wall Street,” Jim Goldman writes for CNBC.
“Apple’s gross revenue was either $7.9 billion GAAP, or nearly $12 billion non-GAAP. Adjusted net income grew at 125 percent compared to last year’s fourth quarter using non-GAAP metrics. But it’s a part of the Apple earnings story lost on most media, including me–until now, because we stick to the apples to apples comparisons of what Wall Street is looking for. Never mind nuances: If analysts offer the GAAP number for comparison, its the GAAP number we use. Lost, however, might be the real value of Apple itself, and the extraordinary growth this company is enjoying,” Goldman writes.
“Subscription accounting compels Apple to defer iPhone (and Apple TV) revenue to upcoming quarters, even though the sales of those phones occur in the current quarter. Thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley, Apple must divide the sale of each iPhone by 2 years, or 730 days,” Goldman explains.
“It becomes a monumental problem for Apple’s valuation when you consider that if Apple didn’t defer iPhone revenue, the product would account for 44 percent of Apple’s fourth quarter revenue, and a whopping 63 percent of its profits from the device. To overlook this, and not give this its fair due is to overlook Apple’s true value in the marketplace, and on Wall Street,” Goldman writes.
“The company probably realizes that it has made a mistake by choosing GAAP versus non-GAAP, and is trying to rectify the situation by releasing both, but trying to focus on the latter,” Goldman writes. “It’s one thing for Apple to focus on the latter, but a far different thing to get Wall Street to do the same.”
More in the full article – highly recommended – here.
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i think it wasn’t a mistake because it will nicely level out revenue and income when lower iphone sales occur in q1 & q2 2009 before iphone 3.0 takes off again in q3 next year. but the stock should be at 300 minimum if it wasn’t for some artificial pressure from the anal ists. eighter way at the end of 2009 no one will be able to deny the impact of the iphone (gaap or non gaap) and the stock will be much higher than today. just be patient.
i’m glad somebody thinks appl should be worth much more!
Why doesn’t this asshat thank Andy Zacky for pointing all this out.
Hmmm…I’m glad Jim is clued in. I sent him an email 3 days ago, pointing out what the non-GAAP figs meant, and how analysts were missing the story, and a link to my Opinion piece here on MDN, from April, pointing that out.
Sadly perception is what drives stock prices up. Reality be damned.
so what he is saying it that it isn’t the analysts’ fault for NOT DOING ENOUGH RESEARCH but apple’s fault for simple labelling it as something else..
what a fuckin asshat. and these idiots make more money than me?
Interesting that the press picks up on the real results ONLY after the bloggers and ‘us’ have been pointing out their failure to do so!!!
Press = to busy to do a proper job
Analysts = busy losing their jobs to do a proper job
Apple had to follow the GAAP rules in recongnizing the iPhone revenues. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to get our software updates for free and have to pay for it (like the iTouch).
Again, Apple was thinking of the customer — which is far more important in the long run. If a non-Mac user buys an iPhone and is then converted to a Mac in a year or so, the revenue builds as the customer purchases more and more Apple products.
The current valuation of Apple really has nothing to do with the GAAP vs. non-GAAP reporting. It is really up to the fear mongering that is occurring on the street which is effecting to market as a whole. People need to clean their shorts, put them back on, and grow up. The world is not ending and our economy is not dead.
What needs to happen is that the deregulation rules helped to create the mess we are in now. Set some oversight back into the market, this will help to vet the criminals out of the street.
I totally agree. Your assessments are quite good. Because of Sarbanes-Oxley and accounting rules, Apple is obligated to account for iPhone sales as they do. That the Wall Street analysts aren’t more up-to-date on either SOX or accounting rules is astonishing, as understanding these are essential to their work in assessing the valuations of the companies they follow.
One advantage of how Apple accounts for the revenues for the iPhone has to do with recurring revenue. Those two magic words mean a lot to any business, and especially to Wall Street. Recurring revenue means you won’t just have one rockin’ quarter, but it shows that your revenues are sustainable. And Wall Street (should) value(s) companies with sustainable and predictable earnings growth.
Do I think most analysts are lazy frigtards? Absolutely. But if you are a Warren Buffet-type investor, this is good news. The lame assessments by Wall Street of Apple and its prospects could help to undervalue the company’s stock, and as a result, create a pretty damned good buying opportunity. Add to the relatively low P/E currently with Apple, and a mountain of $25 billion in cash, and you have one helluva good buy in my opinion.
Apple’s current trailing PE is 17.83. But if you factor in its cash horde of $24.49 Billion, the PE is more like 12.72. For a tech stock with the earnings growth experienced by Apple, that is a very good value. Its PEG (price to earnings growth ratio is already .88), and factoring in cash, it’s even lower. Unless consumer and enterprise spending on cell phones and computers totally crater, Apple is a very good investment indeed.
If you are a long-term investor, the short-sightedness and lazy habits of frigtard analysts might make for a great buying opportunity.
Some email responses to goldman’s original piece.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/27364677/site/14081545?__source=yahoo|headline|quote|text|&par=yahoo
Apple is being hammered partly due to misperception, partly because everything is being hammered. I know. I just checked one account for the first time in weeks. It was one of those “Oh my Gaaawwwd!” moments. Even my Grade A stocks are way down.
But AAPL is better positioned to ride out these storms than most. Given its cash pile, brand, market position and product mix, it’ll take a heck of a lot to bring it down.
The “real” worth of Apple ?
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Price of a flower ?
Cost of a hug ?
Can you buy shares in Knowledge and Understanding ?
How much would you pay for Tolerance and Patience ?
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