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Answerers on Quora seem to agree that Apple is undervalued by the market based on a fundamental analysis: http://www.quora.com/Is-Apple-AAPL-a-value-stock-now

Answerers on Quora seem to agree that Apple is undervalued by the market based on a fundamental analysis: http://www.quora.com/Is-Apple-AAPL-a-value-stock-now http://www.quora.com/Is-Apple-AAPL-a-value-stock-now Seems like the point of the article is sound, though did anyone else find it muddled in the middle? Seemed like there was some circular or backwards reasoning, like that Apple's potential future growth makes its past growth likely to continue, or that Apple's cash increases the stock's value even if you ignore its cash. My own take on investing in "growth" stocks is generally that I'm not going to bank on already-hyped companies being under-hyped, like betting that while everyone thinks Google will grow X big amount forever, it's actually even bigger amount Y! Not very contrarian. However, it's possible the market doesn't quite realize just how successful Apple is being right now.

protomyth 16y ago
I agree about some of the reasoning in the article not being really clear (I think it is more writing than substance, though). I think the key to smart phone growth is that the feature phones are still the majority and will get eaten by the new thing. I can't help thinking we are in the 70's with the calculator vs PCs.
tomkarlo 16y ago
"...that Apple's cash increases the stock's value even if you ignore its cash." For companies with large pools of cash, it's sometimes useful to remove that from the market cap when looking at how they're valued by the market (similarly, you'd add in debt to get the enterprise value.) Ostensibly the market values a dollar in the bank as a dollar of market cap (although one can argue that.) So if you're trying to see if the market is undervaluing the actual enterprise as a whole relative to its earnings flow, you want to subtract the cash holdings from the market cap. Maybe easier as an example: If you have a company with $1 earnings, $100 market cap and $99 in the bank, it might look like the market is valuing it at 100x earnings unless you subtract that $99 and see that the market is valuing the enterprise at 1x earnings.
r00fus 16y ago
> Seemed like there was some circular or backwards reasoning, like that Apple's potential future growth makes its past growth likely to continue, or that Apple's cash increases the stock's value even if you ignore its cash. Apple's cash position projects power. This is what fundie investors who subtract cash aren't factoring in. The ability to make strategic buying purchases which constrain supply for competitors is not easily calculated. Here is their latest (publicly known) deal with Samsung: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110213-704284.html http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110213-704284.html Now think about the "ability to make such deals" with valuations 10x that... Can Dell, HTC or RIM do this? If not, then they are at a disadvantage, as Apple could massively out-bid them on volume with key suppliers.

protomyth 16y ago

I agree about some of the reasoning in the article not being really clear (I think it is more writing than substance, though). I think the key to smart phone growth is that the feature phones are still the majority and will get eaten by the new thing. I can't help thinking we are in the 70's with the calculator vs PCs.

tomkarlo 16y ago

"...that Apple's cash increases the stock's value even if you ignore its cash." For companies with large pools of cash, it's sometimes useful to remove that from the market cap when looking at how they're valued by the market (similarly, you'd add in debt to get the enterprise value.) Ostensibly the market values a dollar in the bank as a dollar of market cap (although one can argue that.) So if you're trying to see if the market is undervaluing the actual enterprise as a whole relative to its earnings flow, you want to subtract the cash holdings from the market cap. Maybe easier as an example: If you have a company with $1 earnings, $100 market cap and $99 in the bank, it might look like the market is valuing it at 100x earnings unless you subtract that $99 and see that the market is valuing the enterprise at 1x earnings.

r00fus 16y ago

> Seemed like there was some circular or backwards reasoning, like that Apple's potential future growth makes its past growth likely to continue, or that Apple's cash increases the stock's value even if you ignore its cash. Apple's cash position projects power. This is what fundie investors who subtract cash aren't factoring in. The ability to make strategic buying purchases which constrain supply for competitors is not easily calculated. Here is their latest (publicly known) deal with Samsung: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110213-704284.html http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110213-704284.html Now think about the "ability to make such deals" with valuations 10x that... Can Dell, HTC or RIM do this? If not, then they are at a disadvantage, as Apple could massively out-bid them on volume with key suppliers.