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Apple: Sterne Agee Boosts Target On Pending iPad Announcement
There’s no stopping Apple shares at $500 billion.
Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu this morning repeated his Buy rating on the stock, boosting his target price to $620 from $550, and lifted his EPS estimates ahead of the company’s product launch event March 7 at which the company is widely expected to unveil the third-generation iPad.
He expects the new version to have a higher resolution screen, a much faster processor, Siri voice software and 4G LTE wireless. He notes that it has now been almost exactly a year since the debut of the iPad 2.
Wu is particularly excited about the prospects of an LTE-compatible iPad. “We view the potential inclusion of 4G LTE as key with speeds approaching that of a quality personal computer experience,” he writes in a research note. “We also view as a positive indicator that the upcoming iPhone refresh in the fall timeframe will likely include this key feature as well. Our industry checks indicate Apple has made notable progress in improving battery life that has plagued competitors. This is due to AAPL’s ownership of core intellectual property including systems design, semiconductors, battery chemistry and software. We continue to believe this significant refresh will likely help drive higher iPad sales and help further differentiate from Amazon’s Kindle Fire and the myriad of Google Android offerings out there.”
Wu now sees calendar 2012 iPad shipments of 55 million units, up from 51 million. For FY 2012, he now sees revenue of $158 billion and profits of $43.30 a share, up from $156.4 billion and $43. For FY 2013, he goes to $179 billion and $48.50 a share, up from $175.7 billion and $48.
Concludes Wu: “We continue to believe that AAPL is positioned to outperform in this tough macroeconomic environment with its defendable strategic and structural advantages and its vertical integration.”
AAPL this morning is up $4.74, or 0.9%, to $540.15.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/02/29/apple-sterne-agee-boosts-target-on-pending-ipad-announcement/
Why I See Apple Reaching $600 Within A Year
Almost 20% upside may appear to be a significant return, given the volatile state of the stock market. So let's delve into the fundamentals and technicals of Apple (AAPL). Apple is currently trading at $526. I believe this stock will hit $600 within a year. Here's why:
A day in the life of Apple stock. Look at that volatility!
The technicals
Technicals are essentially indicators that are used to quantitatively assess the value of a stock.
The Price to Earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio)
Apple is cheap
The P/E Ratio is the closing price of the stock divided by the earnings per share, in one year. It is a basis used to gauge the relative valuation of a company. A P/E Ratio of 20 or less is considered favorable. Apple has a P/E ratio of approximately 15 which is good. So even though Apple stock may appear to have reached nosebleed levels, considering its recent rally, the stock is relatively cheap when looking at the company's earnings.
Apple stock is the cheapest it's been in years
Remember, the value of the stock isn't merely determined by the stock price, it's determined by the stock price relative to the earnings. So a good way to analyze whether the stock price is cheap compared to history, is to compare the P/E ratios over time. Please note the P/E ratios were calculated over the last week.
The current P/E Ratio is 14.16
The P/E Ratio 5-year ave is 22.2
1-year Trailing P/E is 17.6
1-year Forward P/E is 11.6
Comparing the current P/E to the 5-year average, Apple stock is essentially 36.5% cheaper. The Forward P/E Ratio indicates that relative valuation of Apple will further improve over the next year.
Apple is cheaper than other big name companies
Google (GOOG) P/E is 20.35
Amazon (AMZN) P/E is 134.65
Zynga (ZNGA) P/E is 159
PEG Ratio
Apple is forecasted to have strong growth
The PEG Ratio is an indicator that assesses future growth of a company. It is the P/E Ratio divided by Long Term Growth. Anything below 0.8 is favorable.
Apple PEG is 0.7
That's at a 70% discount compared to the S&P 500
That's at a 62.5% discount compared to the computer hardware industry
Moving Averages
Apple is trending up
The moving average is the average of closing stock prices over a specified time. The current stock price is compared to moving averages to assess the trend of a stock. Generally, if the stock price is greater than the 50-day moving average which in turn, is greater than the 200-day moving average, the stock is trending up.
The 200-day moving average is $401.67
The 50-day moving average is $442.97
The current stock price is $497
.....Do the math
There are a lot more technical indicators used to analyze the value of a stock. I highlighted some of the main tools to show that even though Apple may appear to be expensive given the radical surge in prices over the last few weeks, it's actually a relatively cheap buy. So let's look at some of the fundamentals that support the indicators.
The fundamentals
Fundamental trading involves qualitatively assessing the value of a company by tracking company actions, strategies etc.
A myriad of companies have switched their operating system from Blackberry servers to IOS. This marks a shift in the corporate world from Blackberry, the firm that had traditionally placed a strong grip on the corporate mobile market. Halliburton (HAL) recently announced the switch to IOS. This move also validates the credibility of the security of the IOS system, since a defense company such as Halliburton would naturally require prime security measures.
Given the large stock pile of cash, it is widely believed that Apple will provide dividends.
Although Apple may have saturated its markets in the US, demand inChina is extremely strong. Sales have been increasing significantly in China and should continue to do so due to the burgeoning middle class and rapid urbanization.
The risks
Apple's Chinese suppliers have been associated with human-rights abuse. Apple hasn't been proactive in addressing these issues. Such bad publicity may tarnish the company's reputation and stock price.
Consumer electronics is an ever evolving world of fads and preferences. Apple needs to continually provide appealing products to maintain relevance and that creates uncertainty.
Competitors such as Google's Android have been eating into Apple's market share.
Exchange rate risk associated with foreign sales. This can be mitigated through hedging with foreign/US currencies, although the risk is still present.
Conclusion
So the fundamentals and technicals indicate that Apple is stronger than ever. Considering these indicators, I believe a 20% return is realistic and a conservative estimate since Apple has enjoyed much stronger growth with much weaker indicators.
Apple stock price has grown by 41.8% over the last year.
Apple stock price has grown by 145% over the last 2 years.
Some Wall Street investment banks expect a 12 month $700 target stock price.
Disclosure: I am long AAPL.
http://beta.investorvillage.com/groups.asp?mb=13977&mn=299268&pt=msg&mid=11502305
My guess is that we see at least $550 by March 7th.
Why did Apple close Friday at record high $522.41 a share ...
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt February 24, 2012: 6:18 PM ET
When Tim Cook's failure to announce a dividend was supposed to send it tumbling?
If you spent part of Thursday afternoon, as I did, monitoring the $AAPL tweets, you know that Apple's (AAPL) share price was supposed to go into free fall the moment traders found out that the company was not going to announce a dividend, buyback or stock split at its annual stockholders meeting.
The stock did begin to tumble at 1:34 p.m., causing some to speculate that the bad news had somehow leaked out of the closed door meeting.
But the stock soon bounced back, and although CEO Tim Cook made it abundantly clear that there would be no dividend announcement that day, it kept rising to close at a $516.39, a record high.
On Friday it shot up another $6 to close at $522.41 -- its fourth record high of the week.
What happened?
It didn't hurt that J.P. Morgan's Mike Moskowitz issued an extraordinarily bullish note Friday morning, describing Apple as a serial disruptor in a "league of its own" with "plenty more upside potential."
But that didn't explain Thursday's action.
For that we turn to Jason Schwarz, the man who first described Apple as the hedge funds' favorite toy:
"If you can keep a good stock down," he wrote in a 2009 piece entitled Apple: Seven Reasons Shorts Love It, "then you are able to load up for the ride back up. It's like a slingshot -- the harder you pull, the more propulsion you generate."
Returning to the theme Friday, he wrote in Seeking Alpha that Thursday's meeting was a perfect opportunity for the shorts to take another ride on the Apple slingshot. "Now more than ever, if they can manufacture an Apple dip, it would leverage control over the broad market."
"Did the hedge funds decide to take the year off?" he wonders. "Perhaps they did. Perhaps they view 2012 as the beginning of the Apple Apex, a time period marking the end of p/e contraction and the prime of the Apple growth story. Without the extracurricular negative headwinds from Europe or the U.S. economy there is little ammunition to justify large Apple corrections. Maybe the money managers decided it was a losers game."
We can only hope.
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/24/why-did-apple-close-friday-at-record-high-522-41-a-share/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
So what's an iPad 3 gonna cost me next month, share, share and a half?
There'll be a real dog fight over $500.
Or not.
"Halliburton Abandons BlackBerry, Picks up iPhone"
By Jameson Berkow, Financial Post
Halliburton Co., among the largest energy services providers in the world, became the latest major enterprise customer to abandon Research In Motion Ltd. on Tuesday in favour of Apple Inc.
Photograph by: Jonathan Ernst, Reuters files
BlackBerry continues to lose its status as the world’s premiere business phone brand.
Halliburton Co., among the largest energy services providers in the world, became the latest major enterprise customer to abandon Research In Motion Ltd. on Tuesday in favour of Apple Inc., the Canadian company’s largest rival. The Houston, Texas-based firm plans to replace about 4,500 company-issued BlackBerrys with iPhones within two years.
“Over the next year, we will begin expanding the use of our mobile technology by transitioning from the BlackBerry (RIM) platform that we currently use to smartphone technology via the iPhone,” reads an excerpt from an internal memo to Halliburton staff obtained by the AppleInsider blog.
The company confirmed the transition to several media outlets on Tuesday, saying the move was being made “in order to better support our mobile applications initiatives.”
Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM has been losing ground to Apple and other devices based on Google Inc.’s Android platform for years in the consumer market. RIM’s share of the United States smartphone market has plummeted from a high of 42.1% two years ago to just 16% by the end of 2011.
Among businesses, which have long served as company’s core customers, RIM has also been gradually falling out of favour. In November 2010, computer maker Dell Inc. ditched approximately 25,000 BlackBerry smartphones and issued employees with devices based on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone 7 platform instead.
Apple has long used its quarterly earnings calls to publicize stats which highlight the company’s push into BlackBerry’s backyard. Between 60% and 80% of all Fortune 500 companies are considering supporting the iPhone on their corporate networks, according to the Cupertino, Calif.-based company.
That figure shot up to 91% in a recent survey by market research firm Gartner Inc., the results of which were published last September.
Two of the largest companies on that list, Bank of America and Citigroup, which together boast more than 500,000 staff, have been looking into switching from BlackBerry to iPhone for more than a year. That does not include the massive impact Apple’s iPad tablet is having on enterprise device sales.
Part of the reason for RIM’s waning enterprise dominance is that BlackBerry is no longer the only device major IT departments consider secure enough for corporate use.
Just last week, Google Inc.’s Android platform reportedly received approval for use by certain members of the United States military and government agencies and bring-your-own-device policies (BYOD) are becoming increasingly popular in the enterprise.
As RIM rushes to bring its highly anticipated BlackBerry 10 platform to market later this year, the company’s shareholders are undoubtedly hoping the “unstoppable BYOD train coming down the tracks” can be halted by the new software.
© Copyright (c) National Post
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/fp/Halliburton+abandons+BlackBerry+picks+iPhone/6114743/story.html#ixzz1lk8SpbFY
AAPL: Gardner Offers ‘Key Points’ of Cook, Oppenheimer Mtg
Posted by Tiernan Ray
Citigroup’s Richard Gardner this morning reiterates a Buy rating on shares of Apple (AAPL) and a $600 price target after hosting a meeting on Thursday with chief executive Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer on Apple’s campus.
Among the “key points” Gardner gleaned was that Cook reiterated a view that expansion in the iOS operating system platform will lead to tablet sales eventually surpassing the volume of sales of traditional PCs.
“We have wondered whether Apple might offer an ARM[Holdings(ARMH)]-based version of the MacBook Air at some point; we walked away from this meeting with the impression that Apple feels iPad satisfies — or will soon satisfy — the needs of those who might have been interested in such a product,” writes Gardner.
Oppenheimer remarked Apple is “just scratching the surface” with respect to selling goods in China, and Gardner surmises the company’s new retail director, John Browett, will be “tasked with expanding the company’s store presence in mainland China.”
Gardner also sees an agreement with China Mobile coming this year for the iPhone, given Gardner’s own “checks” suggest the device will support both Western-style “LTE” cellular networking but also the home-grown Chinese “TD-SCDMA” cellular standard.
There was little new in the way of hints about an Apple-branded television, no surprise. But Gardner does observe that “Tim Cook did suggest that AppleTV—or an Apple-branded TV set—would not graduate from “hobby” to “focus” unless it could scale across multiple cable operators and multiple geographic regions.”
When pressed about product gross mergin and average selling prices, Oppenheimer focused on the mantra of “producing great products,” leading Gardner to observe, “We did not get the impression that Apple feels a burning need to move down-market in smartphones, but rather that the company believes consumer preference will continue to gravitate toward the more capable devices that Apple currently produces.”
Lastly, Cook emphasized iCloud, the company’s hosted computing platform, is as big a deal as was the “Digital Hub” strategy that was used to support the growth of the iPod a decade ago.
APPL died when Steve Jobs did!
Get a clue.
Right, I'm really hurting...
From laughing.
Right, it's only got iPad3, iPhone5 and growing sales in China to look forward to this year.
Dead fer sure.
Apple's profits exceeded Google's entire income.
Can you spell C-R-U-S-H?
That's my current understanding as well, fwiw.
IPad 3 Said to Have High-Def Screen, LTE
By Tim Culpan, Peter Burrows and Adam Satariano - Jan 13, 2012 6:44 PM CT
Apple's next iPad will sport a high-definition screen, run a faster processor and work with next-generation wireless networks. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s next iPad, expected to go on sale in March, will sport a high-definition screen, run a faster processor and work with next-generation wireless networks, according to three people familiar with the product.
The company’s manufacturing partners in Asia started ramping up production of the iPad 3 this month and plan to reach full volumes by February, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public. The tablet will use a quad-core chip, an enhancement that lets users jump more quickly between applications, two of the people said.
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is counting on the new model to ward off mounting competition in a market that Apple pioneered two years ago. After its debut in 2010, the iPad emerged as the company’s second-biggest source of revenue -- after the iPhone -- and inspired rival products from Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Samsung (005930) Electronics Co. Apple has sold more than 40 million iPads, generating at least $25.3 billion in sales.
Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, said the company doesn’t comment on rumor and speculation.
The Cupertino, California-based company has been working on making the iPad compatible with a wireless standard called long- term evolution, or LTE, said one of the people. Carriers such as Verizon Wireless (VZ) and ATT Inc. (T) are rolling out LTE networks to give users faster access to data.
LTE Networks
Smartphone makers, including Samsung, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) and Nokia Oyj (NOKIA), have already introduced smartphones that work on the faster networks. Apple is bringing LTE to the iPad before the iPhone because the tablet has a bigger battery and can better support the power requirements of the newer technology, said one of the people.
The new display is capable of greater resolution than the current iPad, with more pixels on its screen than some high- definition televisions, the person said. The pixels are small enough to make the images look like printed material, according to the person. Videos begin playing almost instantly because of the additional graphics processing, the person said.
The new iPad is being assembled by Apple’s main manufacturing partner, Foxconn Technology Group. Like most technology companies, Apple contracts with companies in Asia for labor to assemble its devices. Foxconn, which also builds the iPhone and other Apple products, gets about 22 percent of its sales from Apple, according to supply-chain data compiled by Bloomberg.
Boosting Production
Mass production began at the start of this month, with factories running 24 hours a day in China, one of the people said. Manufacturing will halt over China’s Lunar New Year holiday this month and then ramp back up to a peak in February, the person said.
The introduction of the new iPad will be Apple’s first major hardware release since the death of company co-founder Steve Jobs in October. The company is hosting an education event focused on electronic textbooks next week that won’t include any hardware introductions, said a person familiar with the matter.
Apple, the world’s largest technology company by market value, was little changed yesterday in U.S. trading at $419.81. The stock rose 26 percent in 2011, marking its third straight year of gains.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-13/apple-said-to-prepare-march-ipad-3-debut-with-sharper-screen-faster-chip.html
OK, this is ridiculous:
http://shanghai.kankanews.com/chengshi/2012-01-13/953045.shtml
I mean, it's almost like a line for an Android phone, innit?
Almost.
Apple's latest Proxy statement:
http://investor.apple.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1193125-12-6713&CIK=320193
It went red by pocket lint change. GOOG was down more than 27 bucks.
AAPL's at least green today, why is GOOG taking such a big hit?
Apple: Goldman, Needham Up Ests; Stk Nears New High
Eric Savitz, Forbes Staff
Apple are inching close to a new all-time high this morning amid fresh signs of Street optimism about the company’s results for the fiscal first quarter ending December 31.
Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope this morning raised his December quarter EPS estimate to $9.94 a share from $9.44, nudging ahead of the consensus at $9.87. He now sees iPhone sales in the quarter of 31 million units, up from 30.2 million. “We believe Apple is set to report healthy December quarter upside and all signs point to better than expected performance through 2012,” he writes in a research note.
Shope writes that he sees several key catalysts to drive Apple’s stock price and the multiple higher this year.
* iPhone momentum should continue into 2012 as Apple expands its distribution footprint in the March quarter, enjoys improved elasticity with the low-priced iPhone 3GS, and refreshes the product family once again mid-year.
* As for the iPad, he expects a lower price point for the iPad 2 and the launch of the iPad 3 to trigger accelerating momentum in the June quarter and beyond.
* Meanwhile, he adds that the Mac business continues to defy the general weakness in the PC market; he expects this to continue as the MacBook Air drives “hefty notebook share gains for the company in coming quarters.”
Needham analyst Charlie Wolf has even more aggressive estimates: he lifted his profit forecast for the December quarter this morning to $10.85 a share, from $9.55. Driving the higher estimate: a revised iPhone target of 32 million units, up from 28 million. On iPad, he goes to 13 million units from 12.5 million.
AAPL this morning is up $3.62, or 0.9%, to $426.02; the stock’s all-time high is $426.70.
Just A Friendly Reminder: If You Sold Your Apple Stock In October, You Were, In Fact, An Idiot
MG SIEGLER
posted yesterday 43 Comments
On October 19 of last year I wrote a post entitled:If You Sold Your Apple Stock Today, You’re An Idiot. Because their Q4 numbers missed Wall Street expectations, Apple’s stock dropped over 5 percent on that day, to close below $400-a-share after hitting an all-time high just days before. My argument was that it was the Wall Street expectations that were horribly flawed, not Apple’s actual performance. And the stock would recover quickly as a result leading up to their Q1 earnings, which even Apple was predicting would be a blow out.
Reading the comments on that post — which I love to do — you’d think I was saying something insane. When the stock fell to $363 right after Thanksgiving, a few remembered the post and once again pointed out the irrational insanity of this fanboy. But then a funny thing happened yesterday.Apple’s stock closed at a new all-time high.
So yes, if you sold your stock on October 19, you were, in fact, a moron. We’re now two and a half weeks away from Apple’s Q1 earnings — and again, all indications are that they’re going to be massive. Apple CEO Tim Cook is already on record predicting record iPhone and iPad sales, and those prediction both seem solid right now. The real question is by how much will they be records?
Apple’s previous record for iPhone sales was 20.24 million in Q3 2011. If Verizon’s numbers are any indication, it looks like Q1 could see total iPhone sales north of 30 million — and possibly well north. Given that the iPhone is by far the most important product to Apple’s bottom line these days, that could mean not only the first $30 billion quarter in company history — but the first $40 billion quarter as well.
Do those sound like numbers for a stock you should have sold because analysts failed to do their homework? No they do not.
Of course, hindsight is 20-20 — except that we wrote about all of this on October 18, the day before the sell-off.
For a great explantion of why professional Wall Street analysts are so often off the mark when it comes to quarterly predictions, be sure to read this post by Asymco’s Horace Dediu. Here’s the main point:
Analysts have an incentive to put forth a version of the future that supports their call on the stock. Bloggers have an incentive to put forth the most accurate version of the future. By taking the prediction out of the picture, accuracy in describing the future improves.
Analysts often lower their own numbers to ensure their calls are not only right, but pleasantly surprise investors. That explains the past decade of Wall Street being wildly inaccurate with regard to Apple. Apple has been killing it, so when analysts think they’re being cutely conservative to make their calls look good, they’re actually being way too conservative. Except for last quarter (Q4 2011), where they simply missed what was happening due to the shift of the iPhone introduction from Q3 to Q4 (in other words, instead of Q4 sales exploding as was the case in the past, Q1 sales were going to). They got lazy and screwed the pooch.
But this quarter should be a return to form. Burned by last quarter, some analysts may even be a bit more conservative than usual. But Apple’s numbers will not be. And that’s exactly why it was the wrong call to sell your Apple stock in October. But on the flip side, if you bought the stock at the $360 price, you’re really happy right now.
Lots of internal links in the original article here:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/07/blue-horseshoe-loves-anacott-steel/
AAPL chart update...
Continued last week...and extended...sharp uptrend from the mid-Dec low....and in the process:..
* Filled the large Oct 19 gap...
* Made a new all-time closing high...
* Registered an RSI above the previous high, establishing a positive RSI divergence...
* Recorded 2 upside gaps, the last of which may possibly be considered a "runaway" measuring to around 435ish...
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=27866583
$422.40, new all time closing high, up $17 in 2012.
And what's up with GOOG?
Down the last couple of days.
Wow, sinclap, welcome as an Apple Moderator!
As such, I thought you might grace us with some original material here.
As opposed to this:
http://investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=445&mn=161251&pt=msg&mid=11313174
I'm just curious as to why you didn't post this on RB as well?
Getting lazy in your old age?
I understand that a Troll's gotta do what a Troll's gotta do, but c'mon...
Who are you kidding?
Post Unavailable
Additional Information
Apple Q1 FY12 Earnings Release:
Apple plans to conduct a conference call to discuss financial results of its first fiscal quarter on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. PT.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq112/
Apple: In case you didn't know (or had forgotten):
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2011/12/21/apples-15-years-of-next/#more-4622
Most Tech Stocks Were Naughty, Some Nice and Only Apple Merry, as Year Ends
DECEMBER 26, 2011 AT 1:06 PM PT
The stock market is closed today, as part of the Christmas holiday. But it is doubtful — barring any major announcements — that the vastly different performances seen by a range of tech companies will change much.
Which is to say, some companies — such as eBay and Google — did well, although only Apple shares rose significantly enough to cause festive feelings.
As of Friday, Google rose almost 7 percent for the year to date, eBay rose 10.8 percent and Apple was up almost 26 percent.
As for all the others in tech? Lumps of coal for investors of varying size.
Let’s start with the better negative performances: Amazon was down 1.95 percent, Yahoo was down 2.7 percent and Microsoft was down 6.7 percent.
Not exactly anything to wassail about. And Yahoo shares were only down a little, since the recent swirl around its possible sale gave its stock a recent bump, or the performance would have been worse, based on its financial results.
And the oft-troubled AOL? Down 35.3 percent.
The crop of new Internet companies was also not doing so great. The latest, Zynga was down only 1.2 percent, Groupon down 12.5 percent and LinkedIn down 32.3 percent. Pandora truly tanked, with a 42.5 decline in share price. Only Russia’s Yandex bested that, with a 48.6 percent drop.
Enterprise-focused companies also had a lackluster year. While recently public Jive Software was up 9.2 percent, Cisco was down 8.7 percent and Hewlett-Packard was down 38.5 percent. Juniper got truly socked, with a 43.6 percent decline.
-- Kara Swisher, All Things D
Not a bad close.
You're right. AAPL should be well north of $500 now.
Is Henry dead? Is Ford still a car company?
I dunno, sinclap. Maybe so all the existing Apple employees wouldn't have to move themselves and their families to Texas in the dead of winter?
The main point of the original article was that Apple was using a Samsung plant in this country to fabricate product parts, thus producing American jobs.
Something I thought you might actually applaud, but I can see that I was wrong.
Any more penetrating questions?
It ain't just the land, dude. California's got quite the Exodus going on, in case you hadn't noticed.
Where did I indicate that I was worried?
And my original point still stands:
Why did Samsung choose to build a $9 billion, 2400-employee plant in Texas and not California?
Moreover, why do you think that trend won't continue?
Really? Whole campuses and universities?
Just give 'em away?
Are you referring to this:
Worldwide Church of God
During the 1950s, Big Sandy [population 1,288] became linked to a religious movement that would greatly influence the community for four decades. Local resident Buck Hammer was a member of the Radio Church of God, (which later became known as the Worldwide Church of God [WCG]) a California-based, Sabbatarian movement headed by radio evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong. Hammer donated a small parcel of land (less than 10 acres) to the church, which in turn built a meeting hall and began holding annual church conventions there by the middle 1950s. The church in subsequent years bought hundreds more acres adjacent to the original small area donated by Buck Hammer. Thousands of church members converged on Big Sandy and surrounding communities for the week-long Feast of Tabernacles each year, creating a significant economic impact. In the mid-1960s Armstrong developed more of the property and established a second campus of Ambassador College, the original campus of which continued to operate at the church's headquarters facility in Pasadena, California. The presence of the college, along with the annual convention operation, influenced hundreds of church members to relocate to Big Sandy and the surrounding area over the years. Although Ambassador ceased operations in 1997, many families once affiliated with it and the church chose to remain in the Big Sandy area.
In March 2000, the campus was sold and became the International ALERT Academy, home of the Air Land Emergency Resource Team (ALERT), a Christian program training young men in disaster relief and emergency services. The Academy also serves as a camp and conference center, and holds four-week summer programs for boys and girls. ALERT is affiliated with evangelical minister Bill Gothard.
Not sure what that has to do with a $9 billion high-tech facility in Austin.
And the state didn't have anything to do with the campus, which appears to have been private from the start
But interesting to note that the WCG was California based.
Kinda like the current Church of California.
I guess Mayor Willie didn't get the message. What he should have been wondering is why Samsung chose to build a $9 billion, 2400-employee plant in Texas and not California?
Exclusive: Made in Texas: Apple's A5 iPhone chip
By Poornima Gupta
Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:06am EST
SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc is famous for relying on low-cost Asian manufacturers to both source and assemble its popular gadgets, but the consumer device giant recently started receiving a critical component in its iPad and iPhones from closer to home - Texas.
The A5 processor - the brain in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 - is now made in a sprawling 1.6 million square feet factory in Austin owned by Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics, according to people familiar with the operation.
One of the few major components to be sourced from within the United States, the A5 processor is built by Samsung in a newly constructed $3.6 billion non-memory chip production line that reached full production in early December.
Nearly all of the output of the non-memory chip production from the factory - which is the size of about nine football fields - is dedicated to producing Apple chips, one of the people said. Samsung also produces NAND flash memory chips in Austin.
The South Korean giant began supplying the A5 processors to Apple this year from the Austin plant, the people said.
Apple declined to comment, saying it does not detail supplier relationships. A Samsung spokeswoman declined to comment on its customers and the specification of the chips made in its Austin plant.
But she said the company expanded the Austin factory to include a production line to make logic chips. The A5 is one such chip.
The powerful A5 processor, which uses technology licensed from Britain's ARM Holdings, is designed by Apple in California.
The A5 chip debuted in Apple's iPad 2 in March and now also powers the new iPhone 4S. The 120 square millimeter chip is twice as fast as its predecessor, the A4, which is also made by Samsung, according to reports from teardown firms that have taken Apple's devices apart.
TEXAS APPLE
Apart from Austin, Samsung has only one other non-memory logic chip factory, in South Korea.
Apple relies on its main contract manufacturer for gadgets, Foxconn, to assemble them, mainly in its factories in China and Taiwan.
The roaring success of both the iPad and iPhone has helped the city of Austin, where Freescale Semiconductor is based and other chip companies, like ARM, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, also have operations.
Semiconductor companies are attracted to Austin because of a steady supply of educated employees from the University of Texas' engineering school.
Samsung has added about 1,100 jobs to support the new non-memory chip production in the factory, which produces 40,000 silicon wafers every month, a Samsung spokeswoman said.
The rest of Samsung's total 2,400 employees in Austin work in its NAND flash memory factory by the logic chip factory, she added.
The Korean company, which began the U.S. plant in 1996 to make its NAND flash memory chips, continues to produce them there in addition to the A5.
Samsung's factory is the largest foreign investment in Texas with a total investment of about $9 billion, according to Austin Chamber of Commerce.
Austin is also home to an Apple customer call center that deals with customer complaints in North America, Apple's biggest market. The Cupertino company employs thousands in that facility, who deal with calls ranging from complaints to support.
While Apple is one of Samsung's largest customers, both are arch-rivals in the smartphone and tablet marketplace. The two companies are also locked in an acrimonious patent infringement battle that spans multiple countries and products.
(Additional reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco and Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Editing by Gary Hill)
AAPL: Morgan Stanley Survey Sees Higher-Than-Expected iPhone Demand
DECEMBER 15, 2011, 9:51 AM ET
By Tiernan Ray
Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty this morning writes that a survey the firm conducted just after Thanksgiving among 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 18 or older suggests that demand for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone was stronger than expected this quarter, and may increase in Q1, suggesting estimates for the device may be too low.
Shipments by Apple of the iPhone this quarter may be as high as 36 million, writes Huberty, better than the 30 million she has been estimating. That 30 million estimate is about the same as I’ve seen from numerous recent research reports by Huberty’s peers on the Street.
Huberty’s been modeling iPhone demand to subside somewhat and push down shipments by 7% in Q1, but they might actually rise, based on the survey’s strong show of interest among respondents, perhaps totaling 41 million units worldwide.
As far as Apple’s iPad, demand seems to be still strong, with 27% of respondents saying they intend to buy one, versus only 8% having one today. Unit share will fall only slightly as a result of incursions by Amazon.com‘s (AMZN) “Kindle Fire” tablet, she believes, and if the iPad were to be cut by, say, $100, it would boost demand in the U.S. by an extra 100 million units.
Huberty estimates 190 million iPhone units may be sold in calendar year 2012, and 81 million iPad units.
Huberty maintains an Overweight rating on Apple shares and a $480 price target.
MacBook Air a $7B Business, Says JP Morgan
By Tiernan Ray
JP Morgan’s Mark Moskowitz this morning reiterates an Overweight rating on shares of Apple (AAPL), writing that the company’s “Macbook Air” laptop may turn out have much higher sales than he’d initially thought, even though he’s been enthusiastic about the business potential for some time.
Moskowitz observes that Air shipments of 923,000 were 44% higher than the prior quarter, higher than the 17% quarter-to-quarter growth in Mac units, and the fourth quarter of accelerating sales growth.
In previous reports, we had highlighted the MacBook Air as a potential $2-3 billion-plus revenue opportunity. Based on the continued momentum of the product and our conversations with industry participants, our view has become even more constructive. Over the next 12 months, we believe that the average quarterly run rate could reach 1.6M units, which implies a $7 billion-plus revenue profile.
At an average price of $1,150, the Air would produce $1.84 billion per quarter in revenue for Apple, or $7.36 billion a year, he calculates, and contribute 71 cents per share in profit annually.
Moskowitz also thinks sales to China will boost Mac growth “as the company continues to expand and deepen its market coverage” in China.
Moskowitz thinks the competing product, the “Ultrabook” laptops heavily promoted by Intel (INTC), “lacks the right blend of features and attractive price points to grab market share.”
Apple: Wave Of iPhone Numbers Going Higher Post AT&T Talk
By Tiernan Ray
As you might imagine, estimates are going up for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone sales following upbeat remarks yesterday by AT&T’s (T) chief financial officer, John Stephens, who told an audience at a UBS conference that the iPhone was one of the main factors that has put AT&T on course to beat its record for smartphones sold in a quarter.
Several notes from the Street this morning are suggesting iPhone sales may beat expectations this quarter.
R.W. Baird’s William Power does some back-of-the-envelope stuff from the AT&T presentation: “AT&T previously stated that it sold roughly 2 million non-iPhone smartphones in Q3. Holding that figure steady would imply 7 million+iPhone sales at AT&T alone this quarter.”
With Verizon Communications (VZ) and Sprint-Nextel (S), the U.S. could offer14 million iPhone units. Add in international sales, which were the vast majority of sales, and you could be looking at 35 million iPhone units, he conjectures.
Power raises his own estimate to 31.2 million. He also cut his iPad estimate to 14 million units from 15 million after his team did “procurement checks” with the supply chain.
However, his estimate for Apple for the quarter still goes up, to $40.5 billion in revenue and EPS of $10.74 from a prior $38.6 billion and $9.97.
And analysts are grabbing from other sources as well, including meetings, the ubiquitous supply chain “checks.”
Citigroup’s Richard Gardner today reiterates an Outperform rating on Apple shares and a $500 price target.
“Our meetings in Taiwan suggest that Apple raised 4CQ11 iPhone orders to suppliers meaningfully just last week,” writes Gardner.
“The new iPhone build plan is meaningfully above the low-30’s million figure that we were hearing previously. Given such a significant order increase at this late stage in the quarter, it seems clear that Apple is headed for a meaningful upside surprise on iPhone shipments this quarter.”
Gardner also offers that build plans for the iPad, which had been the subject of some concern lately, appear to have “stabilized” in the vicinity of 12 million to 13 million units for this quarter, and may rise next quarter as a new model is rolled out.
Gardner also throws in a bit about an “iTV,” a dedicated Apple-branded television, about which there continues to be speculation of late. “Apple has not even defined specs yet,” he writes, so the project is likely 9 to 12 months away, at least, from being an actual shipping product.
Back to iPhone, UBS’s Maynard Um this morning reiterates a Buy rating on Apple stock and a $510 price target, and raised his iPhone estimate to 30 million units from 28 million.
But that may still be too low, as “these revised estimates are still below where expected build plans are.”
Apple shares this morning are up $2.31, or 0.6%, at $391.40.
MSFT Market Cap $215.35B. AAPL Market Cap $361.62B.
How did that happen, sinclap?
Seriously.
Got any ideas?