The other example is AAPL with its 4 billion in cash and 5+ billion market cap. You get the #3 computer company in the world for a billion buck market cap.
Since you wrote that, AAPL's market cap has declined further, to $4.79 billion. Investing in Apple right now takes some guts, but I think it will be a very wise investment.
They have preannounced that they will lose over $200 million this quarter, so their $4 billion cash reserve will take a 5% hit. But this quarter really is a special case because they have admitted to having stuffed their channels, and are going to sell through those backed up inventories at very low prices (I just ordered one) through this quarter.
For Apple, next quarter is when it gets interesting. That's when they start selling Mac OS X, which is a full-blown UNIX operating system, and will ship with a working Apache web server. I believe that Mac OS X will mark Apple's rebirth. It's what Microsoft has been shooting toward for years, a single OS that can be used for both the high-end multiprocessor server market, as well as friendly inexpensive consumer systems. Later, they will be able to use it for tablet computers, handhelds, set-top boxes, and consumer electronics like games, audio, and video devices (the TiVO box runs Linux on PowerPC chips, so consumer PPC UNIX can be done).
Apple's share price has fallen to about $14/share now. With over $10 in cash after subtracting liabilities, they are selling for less than 2x trailing earnings.
Dave
In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I just bought some. |
