Research archive for AAPL

Apple inc., the world's largest company by market capitalisation, reported numbers for their second quarter of their 2017 financial year, after the market closed last evening. Revenues clocked an incredible 52.9 billion Dollars (although that fell short of what Mr. Market was expecting), earnings per diluted share clocked 2.10 Dollars (which was more than Mr. Market was expecting). The last comparable quarter clocked 50.6 billion in revenues and 1.90 Dollars in earnings. International sales represent 65 percent of all of the Apple business, it is fair to say that this is truly a global business with a very large "home" market. The services business continues to make big strides, having the best 13 week quarter in the history of the business.

Apple, the biggest company in the world by market cap, reported numbers for the "holiday" (their 1st of their new financial year) quarter last evening after the market had closed "regular" hours. The headline pretty much sums it up - iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch Set All-Time Records. iPads, not so much! My feeling on the iPad is that more businesses will be drawn to it in time. Quarterly revenues of 78.4 billion Dollars bested the markets expectations, and unit sales of the newer iPhone clocked 78.29 million. Again, above expectations, which were in the region of 76 million.

It is the 10 year anniversary of the unveiling of the first iPhone to the public. Obviously the design team and the top management had seen the product and had worked with it before the unveiling. For us mere mortals however, it was the first time that we had glimpsed the future. At the time I remember not thinking too much of the product. I met a fellow shortly after who had an iPhone 1, the original version. The first iPhone I ever had was the 3G version. Since then ..... I have been hooked and become a bigger part of the Apple ecosystem. Before that, I only managed to own an iPod, remember those? I may frame it, use it for art or something like that.

Apple reported numbers after hours last evening, these are for their fourth quarter and ahead of the highly anticipated festive/holiday season. It does include a week of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus. These results also included guidance for the current quarter. These have possibly been the most anticipated results for some time now, whilst it is fair to say that this is the weakest comparable year in an absolute age (I think Bloomberg pegs it at 15 years), back then the iPod had only just been released (October 2001). In the Apple 2001 financial year the company had sales of 5.363 billion Dollars and registered a modest loss, they had 4.336 billion Dollars worth of cash (seems like that always is the case), there were 345 million shares in issue and share price ended the quarter at around 15.4 Dollars, adjusted for stock splits, that is 1.10 Dollars back then.

What? Who would have thought that one of the best design teams in the world would delivered great products? I am talking about Apple. I am seeing bloggers complain about x and y, they have probably only seen the product from a distance. I see a WSJ preview of the AirPods - Apple's New AirPods May Look Weird, but They Work Great, in which the author (Geoff Fowler) says: "I initially worried about them falling out, but have been pleasantly surprised they don't."

It was one of those highly anticipated Apple events last evening, the blogosphere and the guess-a-sphere did get a few things right. Like the no more headphone jack on the iPhone. She gone. The new iPhone 7 is water resistant, the display is clearer and has more colours, the camera looks more awesome (both back and front), great new zoom feature, there are a couple more colours to choose from, the fingerprint sensor has been built into the new home button, the battery is better, the new operating system (iOS 10 now!) looks to win iPhone users back to iMessage, with Siri, search and maps more powerful. That operating system is available next week. They have sold over 1 billion phones, it is the most successful consumer product of all time.

It is that time of the year again, when the largest company by market capitalisation, Apple, reports numbers. I get the sense that it used to be the most hyped and anticipated set of numbers on Wall Street, I sense a shift to Facebook. There was very little expected from the maker of fine things, the maker of devices that you may, or may not have thought that you needed. Yet, once you had them, you wondered why you had not used it before. The other thing about Apple products is that they just work. My Mac is indispensable to me. People will spend hundreds of thousands of Rands and finance a vehicle over a period of time, to use the vehicle for five to ten percent of the day, yet a product that they are likely to use for 40 to 50 percent of the day, they just "need it to work". It is actually the same with a bed. Perhaps apply the same logic to a motor vehicle, get a better computer (get a Mac, really, you will thank me later) and a better bed, you spend more time with those two things.

Apple! What a company. Their WWDC 2016 started yesterday. Huh? For those of us who will only frequent stores and not attend the Worldwide Developers Conference in 2016, or any other year, we need to look at these events in relation to our products and more importantly, the future revenue streams of the business that are likely to be generated via better products. And services. You can check out all of the updates pending - Apple Special Event. June 13, 2016.

And then some pretty big news in the wee hours of this morning, here is the WSJ (subscription only) that reports that Apple Invests $1 Billion in Didi, Uber's Rival in China. As you can see, Didi is valued at 25 billion, so that must mean that Apple only owns 4 percent of the company in the recent funding round. And this is less than half a percent of their cash resources. In the history of Apple however, this is the second biggest deal ever, Beats by Dr. Dre still being the biggest. Autonomous cars and car hailing app? Sounds all too familiar, right?

This I can't believe. Carl Icahn't get outsized returns by talking it up, which leads him to changing his mind after a year and a half. Less than a year ago, on the 18th of May, Carl Icahn wrote: "After reflecting upon Apple's tremendous success, we now believe Apple shares are worth $240 today. Apple is poised to enter and in our view dominate two new categories (the television next year and the automobile by 2020) with a combined addressable market of $2.2 trillion, a view investors don't appear to factor into their valuation at all."

There are many times when you buy a particular stock and then question why you own that particular stock. In fact, it happens all of the time, when you get your weekly, monthly or annual statements, it is after all supposed to be part of the process, making sure that the thesis is still firmly intact. Making sure that the specific investments that you own still fit the profile, still match all the criteria that you are looking for as an investor. It is Warren Buffett's friend and right hand man who always says that it isn't supposed to be easy. What he (Charlie Munger) means by that is stock investing of course is harder than most people think, it is only the longer you do it that you realise that. Unlike large amounts of push ups and bunker shots for South Africa's most decorated golfer. True story, say what you want about Gary Player (80 years old), at 9 majors, he is more than double that of the next South African.

The worst kept secret in technology was revealed by Tim Cook yesterday, a smaller screen iPhone was introduced. Or reintroduced, which ever way you look at it, remember that whilst the company does not flesh out the iPhone numbers themselves, the iPhone 5c has not really been a resounding success. This may well be. Check out the iPhone SE, with a 12 megapixel camera, as quick a chip as the iPhone 6. What is pretty cool is that it is cheaper, 399 Dollars for the phone. For instance, the iPhone 6s costs 649 Dollars, that is why the new smaller phone is attractive.

Apple, the largest company by market cap, at an astonishing 554 billion Dollars as of last evening (that equates to over 9 trillion Rand), reported numbers yesterday. These are numbers for the first quarter of their 2016 financial year. The headline from the company on their investor relations website says: iPhone, Apple Watch, Services & Apple TV Drive All-time Record Revenue. Record quarter all around.

Apple Inc. announced their fourth quarter results post the market last evening, for the quarter to end 26 September 2015. Don't ask why the quarter ends on the 26th of September. By most metrics the results were a beat, a record fourth quarter for the company. Sales of 51.5 billion Dollars were recorded for the quarter, or roughly 560 million Dollars worth of sales a day. That is mind boggling. At the same time of course being the fourth quarter, the company reported full year sales, which were also an annual record at 234 billion Dollars, an increase of 28 percent. Or by the same day measurement, 641 million Dollars of sales per day across the globe, that is pretty crazy.

Apple's worst kept secret, project Titan was laid out in a WSJ article last evening -> Apple Speeds Up Electric-Car Work, the work force is expected to triple to nearly 2000. In fairness to Apple to have a crack, and others like Elon Musk, the combustion engine has not really evolved for decades, the same principles still applies. A self charging vehicle using the greatest energy source known to man (the sun) whilst you are driving (or the car is driving you) is first prize for me. No recharging stations, or getting supercharges of 2 to 3 minutes maximum would be the holy grail. And I am presuming that Apple will be competing in the company of Tesla, producing beautiful products that are functional and that work well. I think that there is enough space for new entrants. Or am I wrong, will Apple want to build a peoples vehicle?