The right answer for Apple stock investors depends on a few key things
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), to its credit, is as much of a cult for
its customers as it is for its shareholders. And that’s a plus for the company.
Its customers have been very sticky, meaning that they continue to buy and own
their iPhones remaining inside Apple World and all of the content and apps that
run through iTunes.
And these same customers fawn over the annual product
presentations and even line up at stores around the globe to buy the latest new
or not so new devices.
Apple stock owners have had much of the same relationship
with the company. They have bought and held the stock even with its paltry
dividend and are willing to pay nearly 7 times its underlying book value — with
a large share of that in cash and its equivalents. And that has largely been
paying off for Apple stock. The last five years have seen the shares rise by
just shy of 100% — more than doubling the gains of the S&P 500.
But AAPL stock has really not done that much better than the
S&P 500 Information Technology Index, as Apple merely beat the tech index
by only 6% for the trailing five years. Now, as the shares have dropped from
Oct. 3 to date by nearly 35%, investors need to answer the question: is AAPL
stock a buy or a sell right now?
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