Historically the biggest cash pile has belonged to Microsoft at $64 billion…. It now now has $26 billion on hand, not a tremendous amount more than Apple’s $19.5 billion…
Apple held $5.5 billion in cash only 4 years ago and continues to rake it in with it’s iPod, iPhone, computer, and iTunes sales…
$19.5 billion cash money… this company is doing really well, forget that I’m part of the supposed mac cult, Apple has and will continue to put out innovative, and intuitive(!!) products for years to come.
The stock market is scary at the moment, sure.. and continue to call me the overly optimistic one, but shit… it’s all cyclical anyway, right? just need to time these situations right…
in July, 2007 my blog post APPL is still a buy!! turned out to give an overly generous amount of time to reach a target:
“It would have been nice to catch Apple at $12 right before the iPod craze, but I still believe it’s a good buy. Let me warn you that I am a hobbyist at best when it comes to the market, and this should by no means be considered professional advice. But, come on… isn’t it a no brainer?
(isn’t it?)
Apple stock closed at $137.73 at the end of the day on Friday — my prediction, is that it will exceed $200 a share within 18 months. If it doesn’t split, which is more than likely.”
The stock hit $202 five months later, in December.
I’m just taking the ride back into recovery… but imagine timing a situation like that? selling in the $190’s and buying back when it fell to $120 in early March.
but who knows when, it’s so difficult to predict the highs and lows accurately, and continues to be a great learning experience each time, whether you catch them or not. The one thing we can count on is the market is cyclical and it’s nice to see the stock back up to the low $180’s. I see it hitting $220 this time assuming the economy doesn’t completely turn to shit… now, the question is - does one have enough will power to sell this time when it hits a nice high like that? and really, why if Apple will one day sell for $300 a share?
there’s all sorts of theories to that one, selling part of your market share at a nice high seems to make most sense… and always keeping at least 10% of your portfolio in your money market as cash and available to you. ….ready to pounce on a good opportunity.
So, is AAPL still a buy?
Absolutely. don’t feel bad that you missed it at $115 earlier this year, or if you buy it and it drops to $150 for a bit… (shit, be happy and buy some more!!) it will double that, I have no doubt.