The bear case against Apple; what could go wrong

“Bernstein Research’s Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with a long history of bearish Apple predictions chose an odd day to make what he calls the ‘bear case [for] a darling among buyside investors,'” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. “Apple was trading at record highs for the third day in a row Monday when Sacconaghi offered his clients these bullet points:”

• Apple’s market cap is too large for it to outperform, and its image has migrated from underdog to Silicon Valley bully, which will increasingly pit competitors against it.
• Increased regulatory scrutiny threatens to undermine Apple’s powerful iOS ecosystem.
• Sustained growth in iPhones will inevitably lead to margin pressure.
• Near-term expectations for iPhone and iPad units are getting heady, risking disappointment.
• Apple insistence on retaining cash points to a risk of the company squandering it on a flawed acquisition.

Elmer-Dewitt reports, “In the end, the analyst seems unconvinced by his own analysis.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]