Apple. Is it a buying opportunity?

Tech stocks in New York, New York. 40^o 43' 0" N, 74^o 0' 0" W were dragged lower as a result of Apple inc. getting completely flushed. The stock was down nearly six and a half percent. Why? Well, the two reasons that people could come up with was a rise in the dividend taxes coming (another dumb idea in my opinion, the company is taxed, why should the investor be taxed too?) and perhaps Apple is losing traction in their dominance of the tablet market. Those were the two reasons that I could see directly. TechCrunch had this piece: Apple Drops 6.4% Due To Volatility And Uncertainty: The iPad Mini Is Out, Now What? And then there was another one, which quotes well known Apple analyst from Piper Jaffray, a fellow by the name of Gene Munster. Did You See Gene Munster's Opinion of the Massive Apple Inc. (AAPL) Selloff?


I shall copy and paste that Gene Munster piece: "A DigiTimes article from today suggests that iPhone 5 is selling well based on comments from wireless chipset providers and seems to suggest upside to the Street's 43-45 million estimate for December [...] In the same article, DigiTimes is suggesting a 20% q/q decline in Apple's demand for parts and components in March. We believe this 20% decline is to be expected coming off of a launch quarter and do not believe it is an indication of how units might trend in March."


I am not too sure what to make of it all. There is definitely been a shift in quicker roll outs, shorter times between products and rising costs associated with development. But Apple still sits on the most impressive cash pile. Which is now at 538 Dollars around 127 Dollars worth of their current price, in cash alone that you get when you buy Apple. So, if historical earnings are 44.16 Dollars a share, on an ex cash basis Apple are trading at 9.3 times earnings. And a two percent dividend yield. Phew, I am not too sure about you but that looks crazy cheap. I suspect that because the stock has rallied so hard this year, and folks are anticipating higher dividend and capital gain taxation (dumb idea in my opinion, oh I said that already!) as a very widely held stock there might be folks cashing in. Particularly if the future, as ever, is a little cloudier. I smell a buying opportunity. It just depends on the feeling out there of what level is cheap.