“Investors have become preoccupied with the threat to profits as Apple rolls out lower-margin devices like its iPad mini and packs pricier features into its new iPhone 5,” Kopin Tan writes for Barron’s. “Weakness at Apple’s suppliers has also fanned fears about waning demand just as long-term investors took profits ahead of potentially higher capital-gains taxes in 2013. Many of these concerns now look overdone and increasingly are factored into the stock.”
“Apple customers have downloaded 40 billion apps to their iPhones, iPads, and iPods since the 2008 launch of its App Store—half of those in 2012 alone,” Tan writes. “Also, Apple sits on more than $29 billion of cash and more than $92 billion in other securities, pays a 2% dividend yield, and still fetches just 10.6 times 2013 profit.”
Read more in the full article here.