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Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

nytimes.com

441–450 of 527 posts

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#441
post #233

NY Times made a mess of this story and slanted it toward their agendas. Horrible reporting. Apple beat most estimates. Revenues grew. All time high revenue from services. Forward guidance was raised. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/07/apple-reports-third-q...

I'm an Apple shareholder...biggest concern with driving "services" is that the 30% commission on in-app purchases is borderline obscene and I don't think longterm sustainable e.g. if the tech regulation hammer is pointed at Apple, regulation around the App Store, including limits on Apple's commission, would make the most sense.

The 30% seems higher than it is if you factor in the discounts people can get on iTunes cards, which is up to 15%.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple TV (and accompanying remote) is by far one of the worst UI/UX experiences I've seen.

I'm not sure why you are getting downvoted, I just got one and it's terrible to use. Mostly I get my phone out and use that instead. The original was better than the current one.

Because it only contains a conclusion, no premises whatsoever. Which is basically fuel for a flame-bait.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#443
post #8

And the stock increased over 4% in after-hours trading, as increases in non-iPhone hardware sales and services overcame the decrease in iPhone sales. Earnings per share slightly beat the consensus forecast. An interesting quote from Cook in the press release: "The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products"

> And the stock increased over 4% in after-hours trading

Because the shift to services is exactly what everyone has been clamoring for. Looks like a pretty great quarter for Apple. I think it is the biggest June quarter revenue wise ever.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#444
post #434
post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that AAPL goes on regular stock buy back sprees with its warchest instead of risking innovation helps with the stability of what should be a declining stock price.

Why should the stock price be declining? Also companies do buybacks when the stock is cheap, not exepensive.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/08/the-sto...

You would think that, but they actually purchase when it’s expensive :)

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#445
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there no value in having a nice S-curve, ending up as one of the most profitable companies in history, and then just staying insanely profitable for a long time in a sustainable way? Not to investors that want a quick ROI quarter-over-quarter on that share price.

They can still have the quarter-over-quarter growth in share price. That's why they're buying stock back. With their last quarter's profits ($10bn) they could buy back about 50m of their 5bn outstanding shares ($208/share right now); that's 1% of the company. It may be that the S-Curve is good enough. Make a huge profit and return it to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks. Share price doesn't have to in…

I wonder if the future entails large S-Curve companies using their expertise to start and support new companies that would get their own listing. Maybe these companies could reward shareholders by preferential future investments in these companies that they get off the ground with their consulting and expertise.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#446
post #411
post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone know why the NYT has this agenda?

NYT has an anti-tech agenda in general because tech is killing newspapers. It's also a contrarian position because most people love their tech, and contrarian positions and outrage drive clicks.

Not just newspapers. Warren (and now many others) are interested in breaking up large companies because their power threatens the governments power. Articles like these help test the waters since NYT supports the left more than the right.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#447
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AAPL is still undervalued compared to stocks like AMZN. Apple's P/E of 17 is amazing compared to Amazons 78. I'm not really sure why their stock isn't traded with the same enthusiasm that other tech companies see.

Stock values aren't only about earnings. Amazon continues to be a growth bet, and their low earnings are because their income has historically been reinvested productively to access new markets. A quick google shows their 2018 revenue was up 31% over 2017, which was up 31% over 2016, which was up 27% over 2015. You don't buy Amazon for a share of the amount they're making today, you buy them for a share of the much b…

The remote is horrible if you watch tv in the dark or have kids. Who makes something that kids throw shatter? Why have a totally symmetric remote design that takes your haptic sense more than 1 second to figure out its orientation. Why is the touch pad always waiting for input...

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing _wrong_ with touch ID. It's just that FaceID is way better. It is faster and more seamless, it can work even if you are wearing gloves. Plus, it lets the phone not display sensitive notification details until you are the one looking at the screen(with attention detection on, the default, you have to be really looking at it), only then it will display the details(including actual messages, depending on…

> it can work even if you are wearing gloves This is a tradeoff though, as FaceID doesn't work if you're wearing sunglasses.

Twins I know can unlock each other’s phone. Also, little kids can unlock parents phones for some reason. Would love to see internal presentations on the math behind this reason. Did they accidentally make a genetic discovery algorithm?

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#449
post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was commenting on the idea that "for Apple, [these numbers] are sort of a disaster". I agree that Apple changing from a growth company to a static company is interesting to investors.

Disaster is certainly hyperbole. It would imply their business is in jeopardy or something. All this means is a lower P/E ratio in the future. Apple has an absurd amount of cash on hand, and are still earning huge profit.

> All this means is a lower P/E ratio in the future.

Apple's P/E ratio is around 17, which seems perfectly reasonable for a mature company these days. Investors aren't expecting growth.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's a tax. as long as apple's walled garden is so much better than anything else - no reason to worry.

The EU is already investigating Apple management of the App Store. Regulation is coming and one has to wonder much walled and profitable the garden will stay.

The EU is investigating an awful lot of US companies.
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