Invested In All Things Apple
October 23rd, 2007Yesterday, after the close of trading in the big US stock markets, Apple announced amazing quarterly results. The stock price, which had already climbed a few dollars earlier in the day, responded by climbing an astounding $11 dollars further in after-hours trading. Best of all (for Apple investors and fans), the value held through today’s trading, closing at an all-time high of $187/share. Yowza!
And then after hours today, the stock seems to be back down $11. Ouch! The roller-coaster ride of Wall Street can be harsh, but $174 is still a healthy price by most accounts. Anybody who bought a few short months ago at $130 is probably feeling pretty good about now. [Update: Don’t know if it was stale data I was getting, or if it really did dump to $174 after hours, but as several people have pointed out, it now seems to be back up in the $180’s.]
Apple’s good fortunes outside of the stock market appear to be a lot less volatile. They keep building amazing products, and more and more people keep buying them. John Gruber’s analysis today focuses on the huge increase in Mac sales this past quarter, which he chalks up to the conventional halo-effect argument, and elaborates on other market factors that may be boosting sales.
As I said, I own stock in Apple, Inc. So it’s super great news when Apple’s fortunes increase. But I’m also an independent developer for the Mac, which means I own stock in Apple’s customers, too. If Apple’s stock was just going up, up, up with no particular explanation, that would be one thing. But it is going up at least in part (I speculate) because they’re attracting so many new users to the Mac, and there is no clear sign that this trend is slowing down.
When Apple doubles the market share of the Mac, it stands to reason that the size of the group of people looking to buy third-party Mac software also doubles. Hooray for indie Mac developers — the size of the crowd walking past our storefronts is getting bigger and bigger every day. Perhaps my analysis is simplistic, but it seems obvious to me that more people are therefore going to stop in and check out the merchandise. We all win. Thanks, Apple!
It would be enough to cheer about, this booming population of Mac aficionados. But that’s just the Mac. The stock price is also rising on news of iPod and iPhone successes. And what do you know, with Jobs’s recent announcement of an iPhone and iPod developer SDK, it looks like indie Mac developers are invested in those customer bases as well.
Whether you are invested in Apple’s stock, its customers, its products, or all of the above, this is an incredibly fun time to be passionate about and involved in Apple’s future. A great time to be invested in all things Apple.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Latest after-hours quote at 6:46pm EDT… bid is 183.70, ask 183.75.
If you are long AAPL (like me), you should never give much concern to off-hours trading.
Long and staying long, with a dollar-cost average of ~39.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I bought at $16.
I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
happy.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:09 am
My basis is about $7 so I’m feeling good too. And I’m in it for the very long haul, this climb is just beginning.
However, if I had to choose between high stock price and growing Macintosh market share I’d choose Macintosh market share every time. I think it’s great that Apple got into consumer electronics, no one can do it better (including Sony) but the Macintosh is the center of my life and its viability is worth more to me than money.
The good news is that this Q report gave us both: Mac market share increase and stock price increase partly because of it. I like that.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:20 am
I bought some at 12 or some at 17, back in 2003… I had to sold some (just over the half) to pay a part of my house. I did not want to sell them all (tough I could have need it) because I had an amazingly good feeling about the iPhone, and I was right ! Celebraaaate ;)
October 24th, 2007 at 10:07 am
I had a modest amount of AAPL stock that I bought around ’97 for about $12/share. I sold it all a few years back because I was convinced that I was too emotional about my investment (investing mistake numero uno according to Street guys) and that market shapers still believed, at time, Apple was destined to be a minority technology player. I sold it for a nice profit and plowed the earnings into the rest of my retirement portfolio. Of course in retrospect I’d never have sold it, but it did teach me a good lesson about how to balance emotions with rational investing. Hopefully it’ll split again and I’ll have another buying opportunity.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I’ve only been using the Mac since February, but about two months later I decided to buy some AAPL too. I had such an amazing experience with my first Mac (Macbook) and iPod Nano that I thought enough about the company to not only use its products, but to invest my retirement in it. Needless to say, an 80% gain later and I’m glad I did.
@ClusterFsck: I’m not a hard core investor, but I like to invest in products I use. The reason I bought AAPL was because I thought so highly of the products they create. I don’t do this will all my investments, but when you truly care about a product (and don’t ignore the financials) then I think it’s OK to invest in that company.
I work in a heavy MS shop for a Fortune 500 company. While we all use Windows at work, there is an increasing number of us that have bought Macs for home use. Just this year alone, I know of at least 4 others who have bought Macs. This may not sound like much, but I’ve talked to another 10+ that have said they are seriously considering the switch when their current PC is replaced. Not to mention all the iPod buds I see while walking around! Apple is probably the strongest it has ever been and the trend is only growing.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
I have a chunk I bought at $18-ish and a chunk I bought in the slump post iPhone announcement (March) at $85-ish. The latter chunk represented the bulk of my Roth IRA.
I am heartened that Otellini (Intel CEO) loves his two iPhones and the MacBook Pro he uses at home. It is only a matter of time before people figure out that Macs are great for home AND in the office. Market share for the Mac is increasing, but it could start to really take off if CEO’s start wanting Macs in the workplace.