Quote:
Originally Posted by Penforhire
Even when growth slows a stock has SOME correlation to its earnings, the P/E ratio. And even with multiple contraction AAPL is worth way more than some of you figure. Genentech is a past example of severe multiple contraction yet earnings kept price up. You figure a P/E of 11 or less is a fair valuation for AAPL? I disagree.
You want a crazy stock? Try AMZN, not AAPL. That's a company with an leader (Bezos) who is upfront about ploughing profits back into it, makes almost no margins, yet carries an insane P/E ratio. Just goes to show there are all sorts of investors out there.
Oh, and before you figure AAPL means nothing to you, check what 401K funds you own. Got any large cap growth? Or large cap indexes, NASDAC 100-ish? Or science and tech funds? Then you own AAPL, and probably more than you (or even I) want to, lol. It is one of the most widely held, for better or worse, and therefore hard to avoid.
|
Forget the P/E ratio for past earnings, what matters is P/E ratio for future earnings. Amazon has invested a lot of money during the last 2 years establishing the Kindle reader and tablet range, thus making little profit. But the market considers that to be temporary and thinks they will rake in big profits from those investments soon. Apple is exactly the opposite. They have made lots and lots of profits in the past --- put have shown no clear plan going forward.
Look at Xerox -- they were so successful that the brand name became synonymous with the product category (and there are many similar examples from various industries). A glorious past means nothing at the stock market.