While many analysts have been against Apple in recent months, yesterdayis CNN/Money article recommends that people "donit bet against Apple" and explains why "now is the best time to buy the stock." While the article was published before todayis Macworld keynote, CNN still pointed to innovation as the reason for their recommendation. From the article:
In the mid-1990s, with Jobs no longer running the company and a series of disastrous product launches (remember the Newton?), Apple appeared to be dead. But following the return of Jobs, Apple finally had another hit on its hands with the iMac. As a result, Appleis stock soared 212 percent in 1998 and 151 percent in 1999.
The company then had a disastrous 2000, with the stock falling 71 percent that year. But once again, Apple bounced back with the introduction of the iPod, a portable MP3 playing device, and the stock was one of the few technology success stories in 2001: Shares surged 47 percent that year.
One reason why itis tough to count out Apple is that it continues to be the most innovative of the hardware companies. To that end, in its latest quarter, Apple spent 8 percent of its revenue on research and development, versus R&D spending of just 5.4 percent for Hewlett-Packard and 1.3 percent for Dell.
The article proceeds to discuss the many rumors surrounding todayis Macworld keynote, as reported on by CNET yesterday. In addition to the innovation of Appleis product announcements, Apple also has a very solid balance sheet with positive cash flows ? something that canit be said about every company in the PC industry today. This makes Apple one of the least risky investments in the computing market.
Apple will announce earnings for its latest quarter January 15. Analysts are expecting the company to report earnings of 3 cents a share and sales of $1.5 billion, compared with earnings of 11 cents a share and revenue of $1.4 billion a year ago.
Writing Appleis obituary has become a favorite pastime of many technology and financial journalists. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of Appleis death have been greatly exaggerated time and time again.
More information on Appleis current financial state, as well as comments from industry analysts and market analysts, can be found in the original CNN/Money article.