AAPL Up Strong As Tech Falls
Stocks are mixed today as the market tries to close out its best performing month since last year and as we head into the seasonally weak month of May. Shares of AAPL are up strong versus a down tech tape. Upcoming catalysts include
Steve Jobs' healthy return; the WWDC starting June 6;
iPad 2 supply stabilization and Asia launch (see below); the
iPhone 5 launch this summer / fall; smartphone push into China and emerging markets;
iTunes in the cloud (see below); the continued evolution and adoption of
Apple TV; and new initiatives such as video platforms, books / publishing and social (
Ping). Shares of Apple trade at
11x Enterprise Value / Trailing Twelve Months Free Cash Flow (incl. long-term marketable securities).
First It Was Revenue, Now Apple Surpasses Microsoft In Profitability Too (TechCrunch) Six months ago, Apple surpassed
Microsoft in quarterly revenue for the first time in nearly 15 years. Despite that, Microsoft continued to hold off Apple in quarterly profits due to the high profit margins achievable with its software business. Until now. With net income last quarter at $5.23 billion, Microsoft comes in well behind Apple, which had a net income of $5.99 billion last quarter.
Read more at Business Insider.
Read » Long Lines For iPad 2 In Japan And White iPhone 4 In China (Apple Insider, Macworld) After having missed last month's international launch because of a devastating natural disaster, Japan became the first Asian country to begin selling the iPad 2 this past Thursday. The line for the iPad 2 at Apple's flagship Ginza retail store in Tokyo stretched for three blocks. The first customer in line had waited since Wednesday. Similarly in China, the launch of Apple's iPhone 4 in a white casing generated a long line of hundreds of customers outside one of the company's stores in Beijing.
Verizon iPhone Caused Android To Slip In Sales Share (Apple Insider) According to NPD, Apple was now the third-largest phone maker of any type in the U.S. at 14%, slipping only behind basic phone specialists
Samsung (23%) and LG (18%). The iPhone jumped nine points in smartphones to 28%, but Android had slipped from a record high 53% smartphone sales in the fall to 50% spread across its several manufacturers. Apple's gain is thanks to the launch of the new Verizon iPhone, resulting in lost ground for the Google Android platform for the first time since the second quarter of 2009.
Read » Apple Continues To Dominate Tablet Market (Boy Genius Report) Apple's iPad accounted for 74% of tablet shipments in the first quarter of 2011, as combined Mac and iPad sales made Apple one of the top five PC vendors in the world by volume, according to Canalys. The global PC market grew 7% during the first quarter of this year, largely fueled by tablets. Apple continued with its strategy to dominate the pad market, with the iPad or iPad 2 available in 59 markets by the end of the first quarter.
Read more at Business Insider.
Read » Apple Cutting Orders For CDMA iPhone (Apple Insider) Sales of Apple's CDMA-based iPhone, which made its debut on
Verizon earlier this year, have reportedly eased considerably following initial pent-up demand, prompting the company to halve its production of the device for the remainder of 2010. Last quarter Verizon said it activated 2.2 million iPhones, and it forecasted 11 million activations for the year. So it doesn't look like Apple's CDMA phone sales are falling off.
Read more at Business Insider.
Read » Apple Buys iCloud For $4.5 Million To Ready Cloud Services (GigaOM) In what may serve as further evidence of an impending cloud-based iTunes service, a new report claims Apple has purchased the iCloud domain from the Swedish company Xcerion for $4.5 million. This could mean the launch of the new cloud-based services for iOS and Mac users, including a revamped MobileMe and iTunes, all powered by a huge data center in North Carolina is on the near horizon.
Read more at Business Insider.
Read » SVP Hardware Engineering Sold Nearly All His Vested Stake (Fortune) Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of Macintosh hardware engineering, sold off 99% of his company shares earlier this week, a sale amounting to just under $13.7 million. Don't worry. He's not likely going anywhere. Mansfield still holds fully vested options to buy 30,000 more shares of company stock at $36.54 per share, along with an additional 100,000 restricted stock units that don't vest until 2014.
Read more at Business Insider.
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