Out Fox The $treet

Oddly the bets on a negative Apple (AAPL ) quarter were off the charts prior to the release. Every other person on the street suggested that the weak numbers from AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ) were signs of impending doom for AAPL. The executives must get a chuckle out of all the non-sense that exists in the media. AAPL reported earnings of $12.30 versus the estimate of $10.06. Yes you read that correctly. Though analysts were rampantly debating whether AAPL would miss estimates, the company actually beat numbers by over 20%. Below are the highlights from Q112 earnings report : quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion compared to revenue of $24.7 billion last year.  quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share compared to $6.40 last year.  Gross margin was 47.4 percent compared to 41.4 percent in the year-ago quarter.  International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue. sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarte...

Wireless providers around the world and especially in the US face a major issue with the massive data consumed by the new high resolution screen of the iPad3. According to the below Bloomberg video, users are blowing through data usage plans in only a couple of days. Wow! The real key is whether AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) can charge more for higher usage. More spectrum and capital spending will be needed to keep up with exploding demand, but what the industry really needs is pricing that keeps up with technology. Either develop a way to exponentially expand capacity or charge more for high data usage to slow down demand on the network. As mentioned by Derek Kerton, principal analyst at Kerton Group, users need to be pushed into using Wi-Fi when available such as at a coffee shop or even at home. At this point in the development of the industry, the goal can't really be to limit the wireless use of the iPad, but rather a wiser use of the available tools realizing that wirel...

Today Apple (AAPL) announced a new dividend (the company last paid one in 1995) and the stock surged 2.7% to close over $600 for the first time. So why didn't Apple announce a dividend years ago if this was going to be the price reaction? Well, mainly because the stock really jumped when news started hitting the wires that Apple sold 3M of the new iPad3s over the weekend. This makes the iPad3 the strongest launch yet and further proof that the dividend announcement will and always should be overshadowed by product innovation and sales. That is until the stock is no longer an exciting, growth company like Intel (INTC) or Microsoft (MSFT) now. The dividend news honestly is not that significant and ironically it might just lead to more sales. What do you think Apple shareholders will do with a $10.60 yearly dividend? Possibly load up on more Apple products. So while the dividend news doesn't move the needle for this stock it might just help the economy as it funnels roughly...

Interesting news out of United Airlines (UAL) today. United announced that they will utilize 11,000 iPads  to convert to paperless flight decks for United and Continental pilots. This is huge news considering that HP (HPQ) just folded from the tablet market last week. With a market that is clearly opening up, Apple (AAPL) has garnered a major foot hold into the business sector. Now these 11K pilots and support personnel at UAL will likely be drawn into buying iPhones and iMacs for the home. Continues to lead to a major shift towards AAPL hardware and farther away from HPQ, Dell (DELL), and Research in Motion (RIMM). These electronic flight bags (EFB) replace paper flight manuals providing pilots with paperless aeronautical navigational charts through an iPad app. The estimates of paper and fuel savings are amazing. 16 million less sheets of paper per year even saving 326,000 gallons of jet fuel a year. Not only will it improve efficiency, but it will reduce the risk of injur...

nteresting comments this week from both Cody Willard and James Altucher that Apple ( AAPL ) could be worth $1 Trillion if not $2 Trillion in the future. While this might seem like crazy 2000 internet bubble like forecasts, its refreshing to see investors willing to discuss the potential of the greatest retail/tech stock in the world. Not to mention as the market heads to record earnings, it should also see companies with record market caps. At some point it was crazy to think a company could be worth $100B so its inevitable that somebody will hit $1T and AAPL is the likely winner. As I recently wrote , the market continues to give AAPL a very cheap valuation compared to its growth rate. Most analysts continue to give them valuations x amount above the current price in the $340 range. They throw out $400-500 targets even though it gives AAPL an unreasonably cheap valuation. They never seem capable of forecasting a value other then based on the current value whether expensive or cheap,...

Yet   another   quarter   has   passed   and   nearly   all   of   the   analyst   and   media  discussions   have   focused   on   whether   Apple  ( AAPL )  met   earnings  estimates . Beyond  that,   these   experts   have   focused   on   the   amount   of  iPads   sold with mind numbing focus on that particular estimate miss . Not much of the focus has been on AAPL beating earnings estimates by a mile, or more importantly, the growth rate. Just imagine how fantastically good earnings will be with ramped up production of iPads. Does anybody really doubt the growth path for the iPad regardless of any issue in Q1? Read the full article at Seeking Alpha . 

After the close, Apple (AAPL) reported earnings that blew away analyst estimates by some $2B with earnings at $4.64 vs $4.06. The stock sold off some 6% though due to various 'concerns' such as weaker margins and iPad sales. Typical Wall Street action. Take astonishing bullish numbers and focus like a laser beam on a few minor concerns. Instead of explaining how revenue could beat estimates so badly with iPad sales some 600K weaker then expected. Or explaining how supply constraints due to the overly successful launch of the iPad likely lead to the weakness and how it might be overcome in the coming months. Or figure out how iPhone sales coming in at a strong 14M+ will lead to future iPad sales that could someday surpass the iPhone numbers. All in all, the stock reaction in after hours is nothing more then profit taking. Clearly the numbers were blowout and signal the trend higher continues. The $500 target just reported on last week remains intact and even solidified with ...

Anybody interested in signing up with Covestor Investment Management now has an extra incentive to move now. The company is giving away iPads to the first 25 clients that fund an account with $30K (see PR ). See Covestor for the qualification details such as needing to keep your funds with Covestor for 6 months. My Model: CV.IM - Mark Holder