E What To Do About Apple

It is the world’s largest company.

It is the planet’s most widely owned stock.

Of the 200 million Americans who possess financial assets, probably all of them own Apple (AAPL), either directly through a trading account, or indirectly though an ETF (it is a massive 11.67% of the PowerShares QQQ), public or private pension fund.

So to say that traders are on pins and needles ahead of the upcoming quarterly earnings report would be an understatement.

A year ago, Apple issued one of the most perfect reports in the history of capitalism.

It blew away even the most optimistic forecasts, announcing earnings per share of $2.33, versus a consensus expectation of $2.16, and $1.75 last quarter.

The firm earned $13.6 billion in profits on $58 billion in gross profits, the largest quarterly profit in world history.

The company sold a staggering 61.2 million iPhones during the three-month period, 4 million more than expected. Insignificant iPad sales dropped from 13.9 to 12.6 million units. MacBooks were in line at 4.6 million units.

No mention was made whatsoever of problems with a strong dollar.  The company now sits on an unbelievable $194 billion in cash, the equivalent of the GDP of a medium sized country.

Most importantly, Apple expanded its share buy back program to $200 billion. The big question now is, will Apple buy another company, or a whole country?

Wow!

Since then the stock has been grinding sideways in the most tedious manner imaginable. It was a classic “Buy the rumor, sell the news” set up.

Which leads many shareholders to ask if, now that the stock is owned by every taxi driver, elevator operator , and shoe shine boy in the country (now I’m showing my age!), are we headed for another 45% selloff, much like the last time the stock peaked out in 2012?

Certainly, the grounds for concern are out there.

There are now no new blockbuster products coming out until we see the iPhone 7 in September 2016.