

Apple slips below $600 in first trading day after exec shakeup - uladzislau
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57542903-37/apple-shares-drop-below-$600-in-first-trading-day-after-exec-ousters/

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stcredzero
This demonstrates the difference that contextual knowledge makes. Exec ousters
are generally a decent indicator to sell. However, those of us who have been
following Apple will know that these particular decisions were good, leaving
Apple with a cohesive "four man band."

Information asymmetry. It's what makes markets interesting and how people make
lots of money.

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chollida1
I'm going to have to partially disagree with this.

I agree there is definitely information asymmetry going on. However, usually a
movement in a stocks price is lead by institutional money. This is for the
most part what every hedge fund competes on, a competitive advantage.

If you think that your observation has escaped institutional investors eyes
then I'd disagree with you. I'm completely biased as I'm in the industry but I
think most people would be very surprised by just how much the average hedge
funder knows about the companies they have positions in.

There were rumors circulating a couple days before the announcement that this
was coming.

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cremnob
I'm also in finance. I'm constantly amused by comments on HN that dismiss
"Wall Street" and the investor class in general as being stupid when they show
a poor understanding of markets themselves.

~~~
stcredzero
I don't play the market, but years ago, I got to watch a coworker of mine walk
all over you guys with the Rambus stock. He made a ton of money and knew when
to get out by actually understanding the industry.

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justin0469
IMO, Apple has lost it's touch just as they almost won me over along with
thousands of Android fan boys with the iPhone 5. I bought the latest 13"
MacBook Air the day it came out. I was impressed by the form factor but that's
about it. The stability and smoothness everyone used to rave about just isn't
there. I refuse to upgrade to their latest OS.

That's not to say Apple is disappearing anytime soon, but I think they have
lost their touch. I believe it will be a slow but steady decline in value,
down to a more Google-like share price.

~~~
kalid
I don't know about losing its touch, but wanted to offer some corrections re:
"I believe it will be a slow but steady decline in value, down to a more
Google-like share price."

1) Comparing share prices between companies doesn't make sense (the share
price is total value / total number of shares, the latter can change). That
said, GOOG's current share price (~670) is higher than AAPL's current price,
and near its all time high (~700).

2) If you meant to compare total values, that Apple should be worth as much as
Google... Apple is over twice Google's total value (550B to 220B) so that'd be
an enormous decline in value.

3) If you meant to compare relative value (price/performance), Apple is
actually a better "deal" for investors in that its P/E is around 14, the
market average, while Google's is 21. 14 dollars in Apple will create $1 in
earnings, but 21 dollars in Google is required to do the same.

~~~
justin0469
Fair enough :) Bad example with the Google share price and point taken with
value / # of shares. You are correct with #3. I know Apple is worth is
significantly higher than Google, I just think that gap will close (Google
will raise, Apple will lower) over a long period of time - as in years. Could
be totally wrong, it's just something I could see happening.

~~~
kalid
No worries :). I've been playing with stocks lately so am aware of a lot of
potential misconceptions [esp. around the raw share price, vs. market cap and
P/E being indicators of value].

Apple very well could depreciate in value if their earnings slip. That would
put its P/E in the bottom half of the S&P 500 (historically Apple's P/E has
been around 15, it's around ~14 now).

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Tyrannosaurs
Apple's movement over the past three months has been an exaggerated version of
the NASDAQ or the Dow, up a bit around September, down to it's levels of about
three months ago.

In Apple's case that peak coincided with the my hyped iPhone 5 launch which
might explain some of the exaggeration.

There are many many people who understand the market better than I do but to
me at least this is a complete non-story.

~~~
robinjfisher
Agreed.

 _Over the last year, Apple's share price has swung widely from $363.32 to
$705.07._

Surely a more accurate statement would be that the share price has increased
dramatically. _Swung widely_ implies ups and downs.

The current dip is similar to one seen in April and its share price is still
markedly up YoY.

~~~
corin_
Currently it's hovering around $600, this is $105.07 lower than the high and
$236.68 higher than the low. Sure, "swung" may lack the implication that
overall the price has been going up, so it's not the complete story, but I
think it's fair to say there have been pretty wild ups and downs.

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nicholassmith
I think these articles need to come with the caveat of "markets move and
shift". I'm sure no one at Apple is panicking, it's easy to be lured into
watching the share prices as a statistic of success but Apple has enough cash
in stockpile that their share price isn't overly important, unless you're a
shareholder.

If it dropped 20% in a day I think it'd be safe to say there was a loss of
investor confidence.

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seunosewa
I think the share price drop has more to do with Google's Nexus device
announcement.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
I think it's 2% which is basically within the range of what might be seen as
noise (and now on the way back up).

It's the market being the market and fluctuating in the way things do when you
give a bunch of people a load of money and tell them to buy and sell things
they don't understand.

Some of the people selling might be thinking about the Nexus (though I think
very few), some might be thinking about the execs, some might have just hit
the wrong key but most of it is just stuff that we'll never understand and in
the long term almost certainly means nothing.

Looking at the market over short periods is a route to madness.

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snowwrestler
P/E is below 14 for an innovative technology company whose products are
selling out worldwide. Sounds like a buy situation to me.

