“On Monday afternoon, technology giant Apple (AAPL) reported its fiscal fourth quarter results,” Bill Maurer writes for Seeking Alpha.
“The company beat on both the top and bottom line, and issued guidance that was decent. Unfortunately, shares had run up well into this report, and were barely moving after this report,” Maurer writes. “Again, this was a perfect case of how Apple is treated unfairly when it comes to large cap technology names.”
“Apple shares bounced around in the after-hours session. Remember, shares had rallied from $419 to $530 since the last earnings announcement, so this could have been a “buy the rumor, sell the news” event. However, I think this is a reaction to the slightly disappointing guidance, and it misses the big picture, the solid Q4 beat and revenue guidance. Again, this is a case of Apple being treated unfairly,” Maurer writes. “Apple trades at a significant discount to its peers, and yet it performs much better. Did Apple beat due to reduced expectations? Nope. Going into the Q3 report, Apple estimates for Q4 were $37.11 billion and $7.96. It came in well ahead of those numbers. Did Apple beat due to a huge tax break? Nope. Does Apple use non-GAAP numbers to make it look a lot more profitable than it really is? Nope. Does Apple have the largest buyback in corporate history, with the financial flexibility to buy back even more? Yes it does, but apparently, that’s means a huge discount to Google and Microsoft. Again, Apple is being treated unfairly.”
Read more in the full article here.
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