John Melloy reports for CNBC, “Analysts have had three weeks since Apple reported its best quarter ever to breakdown the results and the verdict is finally in: Apple should be the most valuable company on earth.”
MacDailyNews Take: Longtimers, think back to 1997 and imagine hearing those words! We’ll tell you one thing: To us, regardless of their revenue, profits, or market cap, Apple has always been the most valuable company on earth.
Melloy continues, “Since the Jan. 18 report where Apple said it sold a record 16 million iPhones last quarter and nearly doubled the sales of iPads, at least five firms have raised their 12-month forecast on the stock to an average price of $467, or a 32 percent increase from here. At that level, Apple’s market value would total $433.7 billion, flying past Exxon Mobil’s current market value of $423.2 billion.”
“‘Analysts are as giddy as you can be, but Apple just keeps surpassing those numbers,’ said Pete Najarian, co-founder of TradeMonster.com and a ‘Fast Money’ trader,” Melloy reports.
Full article here.
And, has anyone looked at the dust that has settled on micro$oft’s now distant 3rd, lately?
MDN: Amen!
To me it is. Apple changed my life.
Apple deserves respect! About time this is recognized.
I remember I’m 1997 when I bought my shares – and everytime I saw him thereafter – my broker would always yammer about “…the high PE ratio. I think it’s a little overpriced.”
I can’t tell you how difficult it is for me to not be smug. >8^)
Apple the ONE and ONLY!
Long live Apple.
Long live Steve Jobs.
I cast my lot with Apple with my first Mac in 1991, then again with my first stocks in 2000. I’ve always seen great potential value in both. Apple’s big success was earned the hard way, and is well deserved. Go AAPL!
@BMWTwisty
Your broker said “I think it’s a little overpriced.”
Mine said “Don’t touch it. They’re going out of business. If you have it in any account sell it now!”
I fired my brokers and jumped on AAPL with both feet in the single digits (split adjusted).
Should I say this? What the hell:
It should be “Earth,” not “earth” in the headline. Earth is a planet, earth is dirt. So it should be changed, unless the intention is that Apple is the most valuable company atop dirt.
</OCD>
Thus ends my obsession with grammar.
Ah-ha! See?! I was right about the ’rounding’ part!
No, MDN, contrary to your headline, what the article actually says is, “Apple should be the most valuable company on earth.” (emphasis mine)
Is this what passes for journalism around here?
It may not seem like a very big deal, but I expect better from you, MDN, especially when you take others to task for minor editorial changes.
$90B more than Microsoft now. Another $30B, and Apple will be worth more than BOTH Wintel hegemonists, combined.
Earth is a proper noun and needs to be capitalized, “earth” is just plain dirt.
Cheers and a toasts to the first
” TRILLION ” company !!!!
So why is Google over $600?
Yah, in 1997 it seemed that the name of the company was “Beleaguered Apple Computer”.
Beleaguered no more. And, I’d just like to add,
Suck it, Michael Dell.
The day an innovator like Apple passes a company making its money by selling old dinosaur juice will be a great day.
@_realist_.
I don’t think MDN got the headline wrong, I think they meant it. Kudos to them for seeing ‘a treasure beyond price’.
Once again, great take, MDN. You’ve been on a roll.
@Fergman
My question exactly. Why are Google’s shares at $615 and yet Apple shares are considered too expensive for investors. I don’t hear anyone saying that Google shares should be split or Google is running out of steam. Google has a P/E of 23 which is certainly higher than Apple’s. So what allows Google to have such a high share price yet investors feel that Apple’s shares are already too high. Also, why does Apple share price continue to lag so far behind estimates more than most companies? Does that even make any sort of sense?
Please give me some sort of explanation.
It’s always been the most valuable to me, because Apple products enhance my life immeasurably with glee, productivity and joy.
14 years ago my PC using friend had real reservations about whether Apple would even last 1 – 2 more years.
Take that, Bill Gates!
1. Earth, not earth.
2. “Value” is a term that can carry many meanings. Sentimental. Intrinsic. Market. Personal. There are probably others.
Apple does NOT have the highest market value in the world. However, markets are notoriously imperfect. Apple may have the greatest intrinsic value, but in order to make that assessment, one must determine the intrinsic value of the “competition”. In this case XOM.
The article uses an average of estimates, which Introduces a common statistical flaw. The outliers skew the average. The median – or central – value estimate is much more statistically relevant. Another flaw in the reasoning comes through a flawed comparison of Apple’s value based on analyst estimates (or Future value) and XOM’s current value.
The final significant flaw is that the Future Value of AAPL must be discounted to a Present Value, using an appropriate rate of return to the risk of the investment. The market gives us that — by producing actual trades based on all those factors.
So AAPL is NOT the most valuable company on the planet — even as currently projected in the future. That doesn’t mean that they won’t one day be King. But they aren’t yet.
I wish it we’re otherwise. Not just because I <3 AAPL, but because I’m invested in them.
Google has far fewer shares in circulation. Apple 921M v GOOG 320M. That’s why its share has a higher price. Its market cap is far lower than Apple’s though – that is the market’s view of the overall worth of the company.
But Apple’s franchise is key. It is far richer, deeper and more complex than Google. Applecould enter Search if it wanted to. Google could not hope to match Apple’s product diversity, its software assets in 10 years or more.
Long foreseen, long overdue, here to stay.