It's clear now that the signals we were getting re a better-than-expected recovery were not only pretty obvious, but true. The CEO's confident statements, the CFO's inadvertant "slip" which was later "clarified" by some spokesperson at Apple, Prudential's upgrade, Motorola's hidden sales increase in CPU (PowerPC) chips, the day-long analyst meeting scheduled in a few weeks (see my earlier post today)--all these rumblings pointed to a positive earnings release.
In spite of Twister's (and other short interests') criticisms on this thread, Apple continues to surprise Wall Street with its resilience. But it wasn't much of a surprise to me. This is a company with a GREAT PRODUCT, formerly a poorly run company and now well on the way to being a better run company. The critics and short sellers had some valid comments re philosophical differences or opinions about the market and the competing operating systems. But in their attempt to see the "larger picture" (the inevitable demise of Apple due to loss of market share just as Betamax lost to VHS), they missed the "BIG picture": Apple was simply a steal at its recent lows and was sure to rebound at least enough to provide a decent return on your investment. That is why I purchased it, because it was so obviously oversold/undervalued.
Now, I'm not ready to say yet that Apple will begin to regain some of its lost market share, (this is where the Apple-user/evangelist side of me comes in) but I think they have a far better chance than most people would give them credit for. I didn't own Apple when it was in the $40s or $30s, and don't know if I would hold it if it ever gets back up there, but for right now, I'm pretty happy with my return so far. Hope you all did as well. Forgive me for a little self-satisfying hindsight, but there has been so much doom and gloom and Apple bashing on this thread, I can't help but enjoy the moment.
D. Kuspa |
