Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.
An Apple Falls
Everything’s working out just as I predicted. Apple, the biggest headline grab ever, missed on sales numbers. I’m not surprised really. I’ve been negative on the stock since before it achieved #1 market cap status. Which was about the time euphoria drove the stock to record heights. Calls for $1,000/share and $1 trillion market cap, was the rage. Everyone wanted to own Apple.
Now the pundits are calling for change. Seems good ‘ole Tim Cook isn’t really worth that big bonus he was given last year. The stock was driven by new product sales. Funny, I don’t remember any new products introduced in 2012. I saw a smaller iPad and the typical minor annual upgrades. Cook’s excuse was supply problems (the area he specializes). There were two potential bright spots:
- product sales finally picked up by the end of the quarter. Was it due to holiday sales or a supply chain fix?
- 90% of 2013 capital spend is on new equipment. Is it to fix the supply problems, manufacture a new product, or both?
Right now, the stock needs a catalyst to push it higher. A current product upgrade won’t do it. If the long rumored TV is announced, it might be enough. But it won’t be released until the year-end holiday season. That’s a long time before anyone finds out if the product will push earnings higher. If the stock drops low enough it could be a bargain, especially if those questions above are answered correctly.
Facebook Graphs
Facebook recently released it’s graph search to beta users. As interesting as the concept is, recently published searches show privacy issues. If you’re not concerned, you might want to check this out.
I’m not sure how much of this is a privacy issue or Facebook just makes the privacy setting to difficult to figure out. Either way, you might want to double check your settings if anyone can use your information against you.
Last Call
- How to Channel Your Inner Warren Buffett – five solid value investing rules that you can concentrate on.
- Everything Dies Baby, That’s a Fact (seven lessons from Apple) – a great analysis of Apple stock and the lessons we all can learn from it.
- Wake Up Call: Free Refi Boom Almost Over – this gets a bit technical on why mortgage rates move, but it makes a good point. If you are rate shopping a mortgage or refinance, now is a perfect time to lock one up.
- Removing Emotion From Investing – a nice reminder that emotion and money are too attached. Notice how value investing plays a role.
- Benjamin Graham on Staying Small – highlights a portion of a Graham interview where he points out the advantage average investors have over Wall Street. The whole interview is also worth reading.