What do you guys think about AAPL.

 

Well: here is what I feared about this forum.

You have to praise peter and pay paul..

First, congratulations on your stock pick! Going nothing but up and to the right. Thats really good, if you bought it when it was low and on the left.

Now, the $64,000 question: How much are you betting it will go up a like amount! Are you willing to invest? Imagine how much cheaper it would have been to invest on the left hand side of the chart.

Not chiding you, good find here. But, this is the school of hard knocks. Are you going to invest in these guys?

I imagine, probably not, but let me know your feelings.

Know it or not, you posted a very valueable stock question....hmmm

 

Well, since 2003, AAPL is up roughly twice as much as the S&P 500, BUT almost exactly the same as the NASDAQ which is the correct index to compare it to, so it my eyes, it has NOT outperformed the market at all.

It has not performed better than the market, in fact it's been exactly in line with the tech sector.

Buying AAPL at this point is basically saying that you think it will out perform the tech sector from this point forward.

Personally, I don't find any value in AAPL at the current level. Let's compare it to DELL:

DELL has an expected growth rate of 16.4% while AAPL has 11.75%. Despite the lower growth rate, AAPL trades at an earnings of more than DOUBLE that of DELL (72 vs 33). So basically, you are paying a higher price for less growth. That doesn't seem worthwhile to me.

The reason I would say to buy AAPL is if you believe something is on the horizon that would significantly increase the earnings/growth rate that IS NOT already priced into the stock. If you don't believe in such a thing, you are better off buying another computer co, or the NASDAQ as a whole.

 

I bought AAPL back when it was $14/share and haven't looked back. At today's share price I'd be a little unsure... Long term it may be a good idea. But a short term, less than one year investment... I'd look elsewhere.