Isn't this a violation of some kind of SEC rules? Shareholders own the company, they need transparent information in order to make decisions.
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Analysts Have No Idea How Many Macs Apple Shipped Last Quarter
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You should not project such false statements about someone's character, argue the merits of your point of view, hopefully with specifics and not ad hominem attacks.
This has it at $48 billion: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a...res-what-that-means-for-the-stock-11659686259
Thank you, I understood it was not against the law, my point was wondering how shareholders did not express dissatisfaction with the practice, nevertheless I think another poster here got it right, the company is such a cash cow that they don't need to produce the product sales numbers anymore, in 2007, it served their interests to break out the numbers to show Wall Street the year to year rise in Iphone sales, in February of 2008, the stock was essentially $5 a share if you account for all of the stock splits, they had to prove themselves, 2700% higher, 27 times your money, they don't have to prove anything.
Apple knows peak smartphone ownership around the world is here, that is why they have been building up Apple services, Wall Street focuses on those numbers heavily because there will be a day when Apple can no longer rely on heavy Iphone growth, even if they eventually make the Apple Watch fully independent of the Iphone, that won't sell enough to recreate the last 10 to 15 years of stock growth.
Could it be an Apple Car, who knows, they need to invent the Iphone killer, because if not them, someone will. My theory is that they don't want the exact Iphone numbers out there anymore because from this day forward, explosive sales growth is not possible given that the entire world owns a smartphone, if the Apple Car is created and the sales numbers are great, those individual numbers will be broken out every quarter.
Ah, so you already knew it wasn’t 14K randomly selected, or from Apple household, teenagers. Nevermind me then!
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
No, I just dug deeper to figure out why it was so curiously high and discovered that detail in trying to make sense of it.
Straight off Apple's own website, page 2, first column, first row - clearly shows $27B. Second column clearly shows that Apple's cash balance is moving in the wrong direction.Guess there is a difference in what cash actually means.
13 Firms Hoard $1 Trillion In Cash (We're Looking At You Big Tech)
Cash is piling up fast on S&P 500 companies' books — and investors want their share.www.investors.com
That is the latest PDF available.
I'm not sure where that article is possibly coming up with over $200B.
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They're probably adding Cash ($27B) + Marketable Securities ($21B). Both numbers declined by about $7.5B (adds up to $15B) over the past 9 months.
Interesting that your article says that if Apple needs money they should just issue more debt. They ignore that, (1) Apple has already been issuing a lot of debt and (2) interest rates aren't great right now.
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Yep, not a figure anybody could get wrong by that order of magnitude. So there has to be something else going on in the reporting.
I never wrote that the $200 billion dollar figure was in this article, I don't remember where I originally saw that number, a few years ago that number was the correct one, you miss the whole point of the article, that a high cash on hand number is usually not good for the stock price.
Update: Check my latest post, from your link, it adds up to at least $178 billion, you are reading too much into actual liquid cash, if someone writes "cash on hand", it does not necessarily only mean liquid cash, current marketable securities means Apple can turn it into 21 billion tomorrow if they choose to sell them, $130 billion of non current marketable securities means it might take longer and they might not be able to get that exact amount when it finally sells, but basically, it is there if they need it, that is why activist investors have wanted Apple for years to issue stock buybacks, some have wanted Apple to spend more on company acquisitions, but they are still sitting on a boatload.
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I know Apple is an excellent company but heard too much about Enron and other things in my early teens making me skeptical of PLC. I trust Apple but good companies could make mistakes.
I should stop posting and wasting time because I question some of the level of reading and research here, from your link, $130 billion in non-current marketable securities, a fancy name for securities that can't be quickly sold but they could be government bonds and a bunch of other things that are real, that Apple can turn into cash, so that brings you close to $200 billion, they have 27.5 billion in cash and 20.5 in current marketable securities, there is your $48 billion, plus the $130 brings you to $178 billion, possible it is $22 billion less from the last couple of years, but again, the numbers are right in front of you.
Oh and one other thing, the reason they prefer to use debt to issue dividends or stock buybacks is that most of their cash horde is stored in overseas holdings, if they were to bring it back to America, it would get hit with a repatriation tax, it used to be 35 percent, might be 15 right now, nevertheless, it is a smart move by Apple.
Update: I have not looked at the amount of Apple's debt balance and what they owe manufacturers and the like, maybe that cancels out some or most of the $130 billion, but if you look at a statement from Tim Cook in 2018, he stated that Apple had $130 billion cash on hand and it was Apple's goal to be cash neutral in the future, so he is even stating the goal is to not sit on a horde of cash.
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It’s not worth the research to win an internet argument, but I’m guessing cash and cash equivalents combined, which is what you are suggesting. Plus an offshore stash for a rainy day.
Nothing false whatsoever…and no ad hominem btw…There’s nothing special about being an Apple stockholder. It’s commonplace. People who are shook by Apple should sell their share.
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With all due respect, I’m hesitant to suggest you understand how to read a balance sheet and cash flow statement.
Apple's financial profile is the envy of just about every other company in existence.
I can assure you it was false, at least the implication was, and I'm not certain a single post in this thread projects an investor who is shaken, nothing special about owning any company, nothing special about a current or potential investor seeking as much information as they can find.
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You say you're genuinely curious and yet you won't do a simple web search to understand various experts' takes on why they did it? 😆
When did I write that I did not do a web search, I believe I wrote that it was difficult to find varied sources on this question through Google, and asking questions here does not preclude asking questions and doing research on other sites.
Does a smiley face emoji replace actually reading all of my posts.
Just remember, ANALyst!
Despite their belief, the numbers don't always tell the whole story. These people see a cut in orders from one manufacturer for some part of the iPhone or Mac and instantly come to the conclusion that the item in question isn't selling as well as they THINK it should. A short time later, Apple announces record sales, and it turns out the cut in orders from that manufacturer was because Apple increased orders from three other manufacturers for the same part.
Despite their belief, the numbers don't always tell the whole story. These people see a cut in orders from one manufacturer for some part of the iPhone or Mac and instantly come to the conclusion that the item in question isn't selling as well as they THINK it should. A short time later, Apple announces record sales, and it turns out the cut in orders from that manufacturer was because Apple increased orders from three other manufacturers for the same part.
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Perhaps my opinion is a bit slanted because I'm in the advertising/marketing business, but it makes sense to me to share those numbers as you're trying to "sell" the product to consumers to get a significant enough marketshare that you don't have to work so hard at doing it, as well as bring your costs down due to volume sales.
Once you have a significant marketshare, you stop sharing those numbers because it no longer benefits you to use it as a sales tool because your product already sells itself and the consumers are already in "keep up with the Jones'" mentality. Not sharing the numbers also helps you convey the "everyone has one, and you should too" mentality.
It's kind of like how Apple used to list a bunch of specs and features for their computers in their print ads. At some point, they got popular enough that they could shift their advertising from a "direct" approach to more of a "branding" approach. They're no longer selling a product, they're selling a lifestyle.
You’re only going to find opinions about why apple stopped reporting unit sales unless apple management has stated their reasons and intentions directly.
The answer could be staring you in the face but you won’t know. So pick the best opinion that makes sense to you.
I think they stopped reporting units for two reasons:
1. Competitive advantage
2. Removing the units sold as a correlation to the stock price
As correctly pointed out…Apple stockholders are in the same boat and have been for years. If their comfort level is suddenly shaken they can sell their share.
We now know revenues are up 25%, which is nothing to sneeze at but also not the same as units. It likely means Gartner was way too optimistic, IDC was way off, and Canalys may be close, assuming the average Mac sold for ~25% more dollars.
sixcolors.com
Amid tech industry fears, Apple reports record Q4 results
Apple announced results for its fiscal fourth quarter on Thursday, with a fourth-quarter revenue record of $90.1B in revenue. Mac revenue was way up (to an all-time record!), iPad revenue was flat …
sixcolors.com
But a Chromebook will not backup my iPhone nor store my downloaded movies to watch in iTunes via my Apple TV. I use my Mac for both of these.