Apple's Stock Off to Fast Start in 2012 with 50-Point Gain in January

[MacRumors]

With stock trading for January coming to a close today, Apple's performance for the first month of 2012 has been notable, with the company's stock riding strong earnings to a monthly gain of over 50 points that has increased its price by nearly 13%. Much of that gain came alongside Apple's stellar earnings release one week ago, but Apple has continued to drift upward since that time and closed at yet another record high of $456.48 today after touching $458.24 early in the day's trading.

Apple's market capitalization now tops $425 billion, and a weakening of Exxon Mobil's stock price over the past week has enabled Apple to open up a nearly $25 billion lead in the race for world's most valuable publicly-traded company.

Article Link: Apple's Stock Off to Fast Start in 2012 with 50-Point Gain in January

 

[KPOM]

Of course, with the fast start, and the pop from the earnings release has come the torrent of "is Apple overpriced" "analyses."

(FD - I am long AAPL).

I think the stock still has a way to go, but we'll see what happens as the quarter progresses. Hopefully we'll see an iPad 3 announcement this quarter (but I'm guessing it won't be available until the next fiscal quarter). Given Intel's timeline, we likely won't see MacBook Pro or MacBook Air updates until April or May. Of course, there are always the rumors surrounding the Apple TV. For this quarter, I think the news will be limited to how well the iPhone 4S does in China, and whether it maintains its momentum in North America and Europe.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

Not most valuable public company. Most valuable common equity of a public company.

 

[MacOG728893]

I saw this stock around $360-$370 just a few months ago, but I don't really have the money to make it worth my while.

Way to go Apple.

 

[Mattsasa]

right now Apple's market capita is more than twice microsoft's was 1 month ago

 

[badtzwang]

I saw this stock around $360-$370 just a few months ago, but I don't really have the money to make it worth my while.

Way to go Apple.

I understand how people can be turned off by high priced stocks ... but it's all about % return. Higher priced stocks and low priced stocks tend to fluctuate the same % amount.

 

[wickerman1893]

Surprised they haven't split their stock being so high.

 

[MacOG728893]

I understand how people can be turned off by high priced stocks ... but it's all about % return. Higher priced stocks and low priced stocks tend to fluctuate the same % amount.

Interesting, well I'm still a college student and I kind of just wanted a piece of Apple, not really thinking I would make a great yield or return.

 

[thebignewt]

It's still cheap. The price/earnings ratio is about 12:1, which is less than the S&P average. Some analysts say it would be priced right at about $550, another said about $650. They earned $13 billion profit on $45 billion in sales in the 4th quarter. That's hitting it out of the park! I bought 50 shares in October, and glad I did.

 

[slamto]

I agree with badtzwang, it's all about the magic % sign. Sure the per share price is steep, but you could still buy fractional-lots of shares. Since I'm sure a few people are not trading in 100 share lots.

I hope they split some time too, but I doubt it. Still it would help with the liquidity of the shares.

I'm surprised no one has asked about if they'll every declare a dividend since they're sitting on almost $100 billion cash in the bank.

 

[h00ligan]

When they start paying dividends it will soar...then a split...

Both in 2012!

 

[justanothernerd]

Surprised they haven't split their stock being so high.

AAPL is a hedge fund darling -- when they're moving millions to billions of dollars into a stock, a $500 vs $50 share price means little. Retail investors, maybe it's nice to have a lower stock price, but other than that, there is little benefit. Warren Buffet's company, Berkshire Hathaway, has a stock price in the range of $100,000/share so the people who invest in it are serious.

 

[Consultant]

While Apple is doing great, Samsung and Google are being investigated for antitrust behavior.

 

[cvaldes]

AAPL is a hedge fund darling -- when they're moving millions to billions of dollars into a stock, a $500 vs $50 share price means little. Retail investors, maybe it's nice to have a lower stock price, but other than that, there is little benefit.

AAPL was never a popular holding amongst retail investors, even when the share price was below $100. As of the proxy statement filed earlier this month, there were only 28,500 shareholders of record as of late December 2011. Institutional investors own 70% of the outstanding AAPL shares.

Warren Buffet's company, Berkshire Hathaway, has a stock price in the range of $100,000/share so the people who invest in it are serious.

Berkshire Hathaway has two different shares. The Class A shares are indeed in the six-figure range. However, the issued Class B shares that were a fraction of the Class A shares. Those traded around $4000 per share until a few years ago, when Berkshire Hathaway authorized a 50-to-1 stock split of the Class B shares. Today, those shares are trading around $80 apiece.

 

[Bonte]

When they start paying dividends it will soar...then a split...

Both in 2012!

ok, i'l wait for the soar but when Apple starts paying dividends i'm out. Steve Jobs hoarded this mountain of money for something, i'm afraid that Tim Cook just isn't that ambitious to make good use of it.

What would Apple do with 100 B dollars? Apple did learn a lot about large and impressive buildings lately.

 

[Ryth]

ok, i'l wait for the soar but when Apple starts paying dividends i'm out. Steve Jobs hoarded this mountain of money for something, i'm afraid that Tim Cook just isn't that ambitious to make good use of it.

What would Apple do with 100 B dollars? Apple did learn a lot about large and impressive buildings lately.

Steve never wanted to be in the position he was again back with Apple the first time around...that is why he was so cautious with money.

But remember, Apple's view is that it doesn't buy/acquire things it doesn't need, where many companies buy something, like a competitor and then just let it flounder and die where Apple just destroys the competitor with their own product and lets the competitor die on it's own.

What can Apple do with 100B Dollars...pretty much anything it damn well wants to is the correct answer =)

There are lots of articles on what it could buy with that much money...it's pretty staggering. Just do a search for them.

 

[Schmitty11]

I wish my pap pap wouldve bought that Apple stock 10 years ago...

 

[Ryth]

I wish my pap pap wouldve bought that Apple stock 10 years ago...

I've bought it at 90, 120, 150, 210, 290, 310 when I've had the funds available.

The longer you continue to wait, the longer you don't make any money on the elevator up that isn't stopping anytime soon.

 

[VirtualRain]

MacRumors... You got your terminology confused.

The stock is up 13 points in January... ($50). Not up 50 points.

 

[chabig]

I saw this stock around $360-$370 just a few months ago, but I don't really have the money to make it worth my while.

When it was selling for $360, you only had to invest $360 to buy a single share, which would have returned 26% by now. If the stock was the price (at $180) you would have purchased two shares which would each be worth $230 now, but you'd still be up 26%. The price doesn't matter. It's the percent gain that counts.

 

[newdeal]

...

I put all my money in it th day before the earnings report came and made some good cash. I sold have bought a year and a half ago at $135 a share but I bought china Unicom instead which was a dud for a year when apple was blowing up

 

[divinox]

When they start paying dividends it will soar...then a split...

Both in 2012!

When they start paying dividends it will drop. Dividends take cash out of the equation, naturally resulting in a lower valuation; if Apple pays out 10 bn in dividends, cap drops 10bn. Simple as that.

 

[DamenS]

Wait - AAPL has NOT been "drifting slowly upwards since its earnings". In the post market trade after the earnings were announced, AAPL hit around $470 if I remember correctly, and the next day it opened at about $466 dollars, about the same as what it is today.

If you want to be accurate (just look at the chart you enclosed), AAPL gapped up dramatically after earnings, then declined as people took profits. Since then AAPL has recovered from this decline to almost match its post-earnings level during day trading. AAPL is still $14 down from the highs it hit in after-hours trading following the earnings release.

 

[Bonte]

When they start paying dividends it will drop. Dividends take cash out of the equation, naturally resulting in a lower valuation; if Apple pays out 10 bn in dividends, cap drops 10bn. Simple as that.

I also think the same but the stock is currently so low that dividends would give the investment a good yearly percentage, if Apple would pay there yearly profit as a dividend, lets boldly say 40 B in 2012, that would give a shareholder 8,7 % yearly intrest without sacrificing the current war chest.

 

[Cinch]

prestige

Surprised they haven't split their stock being so high.

In some ways, I think they want prestige similar to that of Berkshire Hathaway preferred stock (A).. Splitting stocks IMHO benefits no one. One thing I do look at is the dilution of value via large and continuous options granted to executives. I am opening a can of worms here.