Computer Components

“A diet is a short period of starvation preceding a gain of 5 pounds” – from “The Best of the Good Clean Jokes” by Bob Phillips

 

Bearish Apple Inc. stock traders were disappointed by the 2010 third-quarter earnings report from Apple.  They contend that Apple has gotten too big.  There are no new significant income streams.  iPhone sales are down.  iPad sales were not as good as they could be.  iPod sales were off.  Competitors are jumping in from every side on all their products.  Apple is going to languish because of this.  Finally, as proof they cite two quarters of reduced revenue.  To be sure, there is at least some truth in all of these points.  Nevertheless, Apple is getting ready to put on some major weight in terms of profits.  This is a very timely moment to buy into Apple’s stock as we shall see.

First, I shall share an important point of bullish investment philosophy.  Bears often times look for perfection.  If there are significant challenges to a corporation or enterprise, and there is no immediate foreseen solution, then they expect failure.  Bears often miss the point that there is no human organization that is ever perfect.  Corporations and enterprises will always have challenges.  The best corporations and enterprises know how to manage the challenges and be successful anyway.  I believe this is especially true of Apple Inc.

Apples Revenue History

Let us first take a look at Apple’s revenue for the last three years – not just the last three quarters.

Let us first notice that in the third-quarter of 2008 Apple’s total revenue was .561 billion.  In the third quarter of 2010, Apple’s revenue was .7 billion.  They have doubled their revenue in the space of two years.  That is a feat that very few companies of Apple’s size can match – although most companies long to do so.

Now let us take a look at the graph for some patterns.  Notice how Apple has a large pop in revenue either in the fourth quarter or the first quarter of every year.  This makes complete sense because of US Christmas holiday shopping patterns and students buying computers for school.  Apple is not alone in this.  Statistically for many-many decades, the fourth quarter is the best quarter for the average public corporation.  A drop in revenue from the first-quarter to the second quarter and then to the third-quarter is quite normal.

But wait, the third-quarter of 2010 was actually a little bit higher than the first quarter – .7 billion compared to .683 billion.  This is what is significant.  Apple had a fantastic third-quarter when you compare it to other third-quarters they had before!  Finally, notice the general upward trend in the revenue graph.  Sure revenue varies from quarter to quarter and that is normal for corporations.  Revenues do not go up in straight lines – even for Apple.  But when you draw a line through the mean revenue, the revenue trends are very exciting.

Just imagine what the fourth quarter or the first quarter of 2011 is going to be like for Apple after the holiday season.  Already, meaningful shopping statistics are in after the 2010 Thanksgiving weekend.  Retail sales are much higher for 2010 than they were in 2009.  Apple is selling very desirable consumer products.  Apple will take a significant share of holiday shopping money and post record revenue totals in this timeframe.  Revenue of – billion would be consistent with the mean trend for the first quarter of 2011.  We can even dare to dream billion or more!  A smart investor would buy Apple now, before 2010 fourth-quarter and 2011 first-quarter revenue totals are out.  This makes Apple a great short-term value play for the next couple of quarters.

 

Apple iPhone sales reached nearly 8.4 million handsets in the third-quarter 2010.  This was a 61% increase over the same quarter in 2009.  The  latest Apple iPhone is iPhone 4.  This new model was launched late in the third quarter of 2010.  Sales of this unit are not fully baked into the figures.  Early indications from Apple are that this product launch was hugely successful.  1.7 million iPhones were sold in the third quarter of 2010.  Apple characterized this as one of the most successful product launches in history.  Because there is not a long history of iPhone sales, it is risky to forecast a negative trend for iPhone sales with such a small drop in unit sales from the second quarter to the third.  Take a look into the next chart.

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It is technically true that the third-quarter trended lower than the first and second quarters for iPhone sales.  However when you look at the total numbers, this downward trend is not terribly significant.  Remember, the third-quarter for Apple is historically weak.  This is not at all unusual for a public corporation.  Reading too much into a third-quarter drop in performance is a classic investor mistake.  I look at seasonal factors and other data before I draw the same conclusion.

A more likely explanation for the downtrend in iPhones was the rumor of the new iPhone 4 cannibalizing iPhone 3 sales and a serious difficulty in keeping up with manufacturing supply.  This was combined with the typical seasonally lower third-quarter consumer demands.  Further, Apple had to delay the launch of the white iPhone 4.  For a time, Apple made customers wait for three weeks before receiving a phone.  More than likely, Apple’s internal estimation of unit sales was too low.  Their manufacturing supply chain was not prepared to keep up with demand.

Drawing from the lesson learned from the total revenue graph, we can come to an optimistic conclusion about iPhone sales.  Because 2010 third-quarter figures were comparable to first and second quarters, you can rightly argue that iPhone sales are actually seasonally high and this bodes well for the next couple of quarters. 

There is more to the iPhone profitability than just iPhone sales themselves.  Apple makes a significant amount of money on software applications and entertainment media like music that is downloaded into the iPhone.  Profits from the iPhone therefore are not a one-time event but rather they reoccur throughout the life of the product.  For instance Apple’s music sales in the second quarter of 2010, was nearly billion.  This is a significant chunk of the company’s revenue.  Apple also makes money on advertising on the iPhone and the sale of software applications as well.

There is even more to the iPhone story than this.  Shaw Wu from the respected Kaufman Brothers, expects 62 million iPhone sales in 2011.  8,000,000 to 12,000,000 new units shall come from the new Verizon cell phone network capable iPhone.  This by itself should add 5% to 10% to Apple’s earnings per share.  He goes on to write that he does not see the BlackBerry 6, available on Verizon’s network, as eating significantly into iPhone sales.

Apple shall continue to have AT&T as their provider as well as Verizon.  Expanding to the Verizon network could not come at a more appropriate time.  Recently, Consumer Reports stated that the AT&T cell phone network is the worst rated cell phone network for customer satisfaction.  Undoubtedly, many consumers have been waiting to purchase iPhones until they were available on another cell phone network.  This should also drive up iPhone sales significantly.

What about iPhone competition?  Analyst writing for the Wall Street Journal, say that Apple is fully aware of competition from other telephone manufacturers, such as Google’s Android.  They conclude that Apple is going to create a new smaller screen iPhone to capture the low-end market and Apple will likely put the iPhone features into the iPad.  In fact, the iPad already has AT&T’s 3G-network technology.  This larger screen iPad/iPhone shall become the top end of the line.

While these rumors are unsubstantiated by Apple, you can bet that Apple is working extremely hard to innovate new features into the iPhone and they are not going to wait for their competition to develop new features first.  Apple has a history of developing innovative and high-quality products that exceed consumer expectations.   It is certain the iPhone shall continue this tradition of innovation.  Apple is a year ahead of any other competitors in the smart phone market place.  Most analysts agree that Apple should keep its edge through 2011.

 

Relative to the iPhone, the iPad is the new kid in town.  Apple already has three models of notebook computers, the MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.  All of these laptops have keyboards with a fold up screen.  The iPad is different.  The iPad does not have a fold up top or a keyboard.  Keyboards can be plugged into the USB port as an option.  However, most people see the iPad is a new type of computer called a tablet computer.  Because of the newness of the iPad, it is difficult to forecast sales based on history.  That does not mean we can come to some favorable conclusions for Apple and the iPad.

 

To be sure the iPad is one of the most successful new products in years.  Apple initially projected building 7.1 million units for 2010.  This is according to the analysts at iSuppli.  iSuppli is a respected analyst of technology companies.  Now, iSuppli sees Apple producing 12.9 million iPads for 2010, 36.5 million units for 2011 and 50.4 million units for 2012.  This is phenomenal growth for a new product.  This is especially exciting when you realize Apple’s executives state that more money shall be made on the iPads by selling advertising space, applications, music and video media, then the units themselves.

iSuppli projects the sales based on increased production of NAND memory chips used by the iPad and iPad sized LCD screens.  They go on to say that Apple plans on adding new features to the iPad, like a camera and larger screen sizes.  They state that Apple currently has 84% of the tablet market and they expect Apple to maintain this market share through 2011.

I assume a 0 price tag for the typical iPad sale and a 21.5% profit margin that is typical for Apple.  Just with iPad sales alone, this represents nearly .4 billion in additional profits for Apple in 2011.  Remember this does not even include software and media sales!  Take a look at the gross revenue plots above and tell me now you are not excited.  Just on iPad sales alone, Apple can continue the revenue growth trend line for 2011!

 

Other Points and Conclusion

In addition to iPhones and iPads, Apple has a complete line of PCs, laptops and their ever-famous music iPod.  Gartner, a highly respected market forecasting company, predicts that PC sales shall continue to climb in 2011, compared to 2010.  This fits with other economic forecasts.  The consensus economic forecast for 2011 is for the US GDP to grow 3.3% annually.  This compares to the projected 2010 growth of 2.5%.  Apple has been selling well, even in a challenging 2010 economy.  Just picture what Apple will do when the economy returns closer to normal.

Because of Apple’s success, Apple has very little debt.  Value Line rates their finances as A++.  They sit on a cash reserve of billions of dollars.  They have so much cash in fact that seemingly crazy rumors are circulating.  The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is contemplating a huge takeover sometime over the next year.  It is speculated that Apple may buy Adobe, Disney or even Sony.  The last two choices make a great deal of sense because this gives Apple access to music and video media.  Who knows what Apple will finally do with their war chest of money.  However, Apple will probably do something very bold over the course of 2011.  This will add further excitement to their stock in price appreciation.

Apple just reached a 52-week high at over 0 a share on December 6, 2010.  I have had many investors ask me is not Apple’s share price too high?  Yes, I admit the share price is intimidating.  However, most brokerages do not charge extra for buying small odd lots of Apple shares.  What is more important for investment value is what is Apple’s price to earnings ratio.  Apple’s trailing PE was 21.13 on December 6, 2010.  Considering Apple’s explosive growth and the fact that PE data looks backwards in time for six months to a year, Apple is very reasonably priced.  For comparison on the same date, Apple’s PE was lower than Google’s!  From that point of view, Apple is a better buy.

Apple share price has grown over 65% year-over-year.  Just with the iPad and iPhone sales alone, Apple shall make incredible profits for 2011.  Throw in Apple’s other computers, laptops, new OS, mobile software applications, entertainment media and they are set to achieve record growth again for 2011.  Bring in a healthier 2011 US economy and this shall turbo charge Apple’s profits further.  In addition, because of Apple’s recent stock price lull, they offer a good value play for the next couple of quarters too.

 

‘

“If you’re such a good fortuneteller, you should be able to tell me the score of tonight’s hockey game before it starts!”

“Before the game starts, the score will be nothing to nothing!” ‘ – from “The Best of the Good Cleaned Jokes” by Bob Phillips

 

More Apple Articles

‘Two men were discussing how to make extra money.  One man says to the other, “I am thinking about getting into Egyptian real estate.”

“Oh really?” asks the other man.

The first man replies, “Yes, but I am afraid it is a pyramid scheme.” ‘ – Unknown comedian

 

Apple – the Broad View

 

When you are wrong you are wrong.  I was wrong about Apple but so were the Bears.  I thought Apple would report – billion in total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2010.  Maybe billion in revenue – tops.  Instead Apple reported an astounding .7 billion in total revenue!  First let us take a look at the graph of this revenue over the last few years.

 

 

Notice that Apple’s total revenue has very nearly doubled in the space of one year (87%).  In my previous article about Apple, I wrote that it was astounding that Apple doubled their total revenue in the space of two years.  They are nearly billion over the high-end estimation.

 

This article is not designed to replace my prior Articlesbase article, “Apple Inc., a Stock Analysis for December 2010 – Buy a Bushel Basket of Apple Stock”.  This article instead updates that financial information to what is now known about Apple.  The basic profit drivers are still the iPhone, iPad, computers, laptops and media.  Where the numbers are different from the original article I will point them out in this article.

 

Fundamentally, Apple is still financially solid and hugely profitable.  The basic premise of the original article still holds.  Buy Apple shares now and hold them until the end of 2011.  You shall be very grateful to Mark Elliot Investments that you did.

 

Yes, Apple shares have raised from just over 0 to 0 a share.  This took place from late August of 2010 to the middle of January 2011.  It is a fair question to ask is Apple too high?  The answer involves taking a look at the PE ratio.  As of mid January 2011, Apple’s PE ratio stands below 19.  This is after their incredible share price run-up.  This has everything to do with their incredible run-up in revenue and profits.  Apple is producing large amount of profits for every share that is outstanding.  To the point, Apple’s profitability increased slightly for the last quarter.  This keeps them at a value point.  By comparison, Google’s PE is just over 23.  NVIDIA who makes a very popular video chip used in cell phones and other portable devices is over 67.  Apple is still lower in valuation than these other technology companies.

 

Historic PE averages are around 16 for the S&P 500.  When companies get over this value, they need to justify the expense with high expectations of future growth.  The higher the PE ratio above historic norms, the more vulnerable the stock is too bad news and thus a collapse in its share price.  We all remember the tech bubble, right?  Technology companies, historically run higher than the average PE ratio of 16.  They oftentimes are in the 20s.  This is traditionally because technology companies offer higher rates of growth than other industries.  At the very least, investors are historically more willing to pay for a technology company than other types of companies.  At a PE ratio of 19, Apple is still not much above the historic average and is low for such a well-run technology company.

 

Apple is still a tremendous value.  In fact, Apple’s PE is even lower now than it was when I wrote the original Apple article in early December 2010!  Simply put, Apple has created so much profit, that the broader stock market has not caught up with this idea.  When they do, Apple stocks will go significantly higher.  Many analysts are now calling for Apple shares between 0 and 0 a share by the end of 2011.  As we have seen, who knows, these figures could be too low.  If Apple doubles their revenue again in another year, we could see a figure around 0 per share.

 

Apple – the Detailed View

 

Now let us start to break down Apple’s revenue in detail.  The centerpiece of Apple’s revenue generation is the iPhone.  Peter Oppenheimer is the Chief Financial Officer of Apple Inc.  Peter reported 16.24 million iPhones were sold during the last quarter.  When you include the accessories, media and apps for the iPhone, this was .47 billion in revenue for Apple.  This is not quite double the total number of units sold a year ago.  Apple believes that the new iPhone selling on the Verizon network shall raise unit sales and profits even more dramatically.  The reason why is Verizon’s network is more popular with consumers than AT&T’s network.  Until very recently, AT&T had an exclusive contract for selling iPhones.  Notice in the graph below, a huge pop in iPhone sales.  Just imagine what it shall be like after Verizon sales kick in.

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Peter went on to report that 7.33 million iPads were sold.  This represents .61 billion in revenue.  Apple originally projected 7.1 million iPads for the end of 2010.  This was above Apple’s forecast.  However, this is significantly below the iSuppli forecast of 12.9 million units in my original article.  Nonetheless, the dramatic increase in iPhone sales more than offset the lower iPad numbers.  In one way, the iPad launch is more successful than the iPhone launch.  In just three quarters, iPad sales are equal to 7 million units.   It took the iPhone five quarters to get close to this number and 10 quarters to stay consistently above it.  When taken together, the sale of iPhones and iPads are well over 50% of the total revenue figures.

 

 

In the third-quarter of 2010, Apple was taken by surprise with the popularity of both the iPhone and the iPad.  A serious limitation was getting enough parts to build these units.  Apple has since fixed the supply pipeline problem according to Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer.  This explains part of the large jump in revenue.  Another factor, Christmas sales were much better for 2010 than they were in 2009.  It looks like the iPhone and the iPad were the popular gift to give!

 

Apple store sales are still incredibly strong.  Apple stores brought in billion worth of revenue.  They set sales records for the month of December, 2010.  Apple is currently selling products in 46 countries and planning on adding another 15 this January.  For example, Peter reported that the four Chinese Apple stores had the highest average revenue of any other Apple store.  Foreign sales are a huge part of Apple’s total revenue.  Worldwide sales are growing at a faster rate than US sales alone.

 

Not only were Apple store sales good but Apple computer sales were good as well.  Apple sold 4.13 million Apple computers.  This is up 23% from a year ago.  Also, half of the customers in December buying Apple computers were new to Apple.  This means that Apple still continues to take market share from the traditional PC companies.  It also dispels the idea that Apple cannot sell new, more traditional, computers because of their new iPad.

 

Still, Apple faces some challenges.  The most important question is can Apple continue on without Steve Jobs?  Steve Jobs has left Apple because of medical problems.  More than likely, these medical problems are due to cancer.  Tim Cook addressed the issue and said that Steve has created quite a culture of excellence.  He felt that the culture should stand without the day-to-day input of Steve Jobs.  In addition, their product pipeline is full and well planned.

 

It is the view of Mark Elliot Investments that Apple will continue having a stellar year through 2011 without Steve Jobs.  He shall be missed.  But because of the length of product development cycles, the earliest that Steve Jobs is actually missed is a year.  Also remember that Tim Cook ran the company before without Steve Jobs for a period of nine months.

 

Apple faces yet another challenging problem.  Apple is receiving stiff competition from Google’s Android operating system based portable devices.  Total android unit sales surpassed iPhone sales in the last quarter.  There are numerous manufacturers making cell phones and tablet computers that support the Android operating system.  Tim accurately points out that Apple is still well ahead in the development of mobile devices.  Further, Apple is not resting on their success and they are developing new features and products based on their successful iPhone and iPad devices.  This should keep them ahead of competition for at least another year.

 

It is Mark Elliot Investment’s opinion that Android is the most serious threat to Apple’s future.  Remember when IBM and Apple made more expensive personal computers?  Then the inexpensive PC clones came out and the personal computer marketplace was revolutionized.  Apple will need to keep strict control of their features, costs and quality to stay ahead of Android.  Still, Tim Cook is right.  Apple probably has another year before Android can compete with them toe to toe.  If you want to hedge your bets in this area, you can always buy some of Google’s stock.  Remember, you do not have to bet on one horse to win when you own stocks!  However for me, I think there are other opportunities that have better appreciation potential than Google.  I shall be reporting on them in another article.

 

A third and less significant challenge is Apple’s older iPod product is dropping off in sales.  Apple freely confessed that iPod sales were down 7% from last quarter.  This is a trend that has developed over several quarters now.  They are likely cannibalizing iPod sales with the new iPhones and iPads.  Nevertheless, the newer products more than make up in revenue for this lost revenue on the older ones.  Apple has a philosophy of simply developing the best new products – even if this competes with older existing products.  This is where Apple is a little different from many other technology companies.  You certainly cannot argue with their revenue figures.

 

Apple – Epilogue

 

While Apple’s future may be in doubt beyond 2011 due to human and competitive forces, Apple is going to be a fantastic investment for 2011.  Mark Elliot Investments will let you know when Apple becomes either too expensive or is no longer responding appropriately to competition.  Before concluding, I need to make you aware of a clever trap that Bears shall lay for Apple investors.

 

Investors will need to keep the faith on Apple during the second and third quarters of 2011 and continue holding on to Apple shares.  This is when Apple characteristically dips in revenue because there are no holiday sales drivers.  The Bears will make a lot out of this drop in revenue.  Just like they did in 2010.  The Bears attributed, incorrectly, that the 2010-second quarter fall off in profits was all due to Apple “cannibalizing” their own iPod sales.  This bearish argument even prevailed in the third-quarter, when the third-quarter was very high for a third-quarter.  Finally, the bears will attribute the fall off in revenue to Apple falling to pieces without Steve Jobs.  Do not worry about the revenue slumps.  The second and third quarters slumps for Apple are seasonally in nature.

 

It is important to look at Apple’s revenue over a period of years and not to be preoccupied with quarter-by-quarter increases or drops.  When you look at Apple as a long-term investment they are incredibly noteworthy.  When Apple shares dip, put some of your cash to work and buy more Apple shares.  Rotate out of other companies that have high PE ratios and sew this money into the lower valued Apple shares.

 

Apple is this decades Intel and Microsoft.  Remember, in the 90s, how people used to tell you Intel and Microsoft is just too expensive.  There are just too many people following the same stock.  Meanwhile, year after year, you missed the opportunity for being wealthy.  Please, do not let this tired wisdom or the “fear of tech bubbles past” fool you.  See Apple for their investment fundamentals.  They are a fantastic investment opportunity – even now.

 

As always, I wish you the best of luck with your investments!

 

“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

Chasing the American Dream does not count as exercise.

The only thing you ever get free of charge is a dead battery.

Humpty Dumpy had a great fall – had a pretty good spring and summer too.” – from the “Mammoth Book of Best New Jokes”, edited by Geoff Tibballs