Strange stock assessment from a value investor I kind of admire: a note on the transition of Apple into a "value stock"
In my email today I received a missive from a value investor I kind of admire - a peon to the value in Apple shares. To quote:
My mother-in-law had an Android tablet, and it quickly turned into an expensive paperweight on her kitchen counter. Six months ago she got an iPad mini, and she is inseparable from it. She won’t be buying another non-Apple phone or tablet. There is a lot of bearishness on Apple in the media and blogosphere, but if these headlines start scaring you out of the stock, just visit a few Apple stores and your fears will all go away – the one we dropped in on recently in Denver was swarming with Apple fanatics, while the Microsoft store next door and the Samsung store at Best Buy were almost empty. These folks will be buying whatever comes out of Cupertino for a long, long time.
Value investors must be the only people who assess tech stocks by what the grandmothers like. And they do it without any trace of irony.
Just like the classic Samsung advert but without the humour:
But of course my value friend does have a point. What with increasing longevity Apple will be here for a long time. I am not killing granny off yet - and the trail of some declining tech stock is clearly worth a lot of money.
What is Microsoft worth?
John
(No position in either stock - but generally I want to leave declining tech alone. Someone pitched me Blackberry the other day based on the qualities of their latest phone. You can make a pitch for Blackberry - but it is a patent-installed base pitch, not a pitch on the future...)