Apple Inc (AAPL)

The European commission is saying to the Irish government that they need to go to Apple and get back 13 billion euros in back taxes. This is outrageous. They are really using competition policy to go after this, and essentially their trampling over the sovereignty of Ireland, who can decide what tax rate to achieve. Thinks it is overreaching.

Thinks the bull case for this is that it is cheap and has tons of cash. However, it is hard to see, with 65% of its earnings coming from the iPhone, what is next. It is hard to see how this will grow, as you are not going to get it through iPhone sales or through iPad. A great company with great iconic products, but how do you grow that business?

(Market Call Minute.) Sold his holdings a few weeks ago. With the iPhone being 2/3 of its sales and slowing sales is a bit of a concern for him.

(Top Pick Aug 14/15, Down 5.73%) They are heading into a product refresh cycle. Apple is a different company today. It is more developed today.

It is a cash cow without innovation. They will refresh many of their products. They need to gain traction in emerging markets with their iPhone.

He is constructive on this company. There have been questions on the refresh cycle going forward, but he is comfortable with that. The new phone coming out will be good. If there is not a rush to it, there will be a gradual type of refresh cycle. He is positive on their move to their eco system.

He argues all the time within his company about this. He doesn't like it while others like it because they are such an iconic company. They've been good about product innovation. Expensive considering profit margin. Watch iPhone sales in the fall.

(A Top Pick Sept 3/15. Up 0.58%.) Still owns a modest size position in this. There is a lot of controversy, but at the end of the day, it is a great branded company, and people love their products and continue to buy them. This is trading for less than 10X earnings ex-cash, so is very cheap relative to the market. Has a huge amount of cash on its balance sheet. Over time, there are all kinds of opportunities for the company to get involved in the connected car, software as a service, data storage, etc.

(A Top Pick Sept 22/15. Down 1.63%.) For the last year this has been a value trap. Concerns have been on smart phones and where we are in the cycle for them. Leading experts in the field suggest that the growth is not over, but has been dramatically slowing. Despite this company’s really, really tough problem this year, it has really been more of a comparison, because the prior years’ iPhone cycle was so strong. The new iPhone coming out is not expected to be that exciting. Valuation is so ridiculously cheap. No one ever gives it the value for its $230 billion of cash.

Very attractively valued, and have a lot of cash, so it is a very safe balance sheet. The question is on its growth going forward. Product innovation is very important for a consumer products company. They have a new phone coming out in the fall, which will likely generate some demand. The weakness has been in their international markets, which is where most of their growth comes from. With the costs of their phones in the slowdown in some of those economies, demand has been softer. You could probably step in.

He likes the company, although he sold his holdings recently. You are really just watching for the quarters and the next iPhone release and how much it is going to sell. You can get into some volatile quarters. The dividend is very safe as the company has a lot of cash.

(Market Call Minute.) Thinks the IOS ecosystem is a win.

The street gets overly focused on iPhone sales from quarter to quarter. Apple also has a big cloud business. There will be a big conversion to the iPhone 7 when it comes out, but don’t wait till then.

Not an expensive stock, trading at 11X earnings. They have so much cash that they don’t know what to do with it. Has a big buyback going on, and they can certainly increase the dividend a lot more. The risk is that a lot of their revenue comes from one product. You are not going to see the massive growth that you have seen in previous years. Dividend yield of 2.15%, which could easily be put up to 3%.

(A Top Pick Aug 26/15. Down 2.3%.) After the latest quarter, the obituary has been retracted for now. This is a company and a stock that everyone has an opinion on. It is a highly bifurcated view in that they really love it, or don’t like it at all. You have to remember that this is a company that has been adopted by a great many people as their way of adopting the mobile experience. Thinks that iPhone 7 coming this fall, will be very, very successful. Valuation is extremely attractive, 30% of their market capitalization is in cash, and it is trading at a single digit multiple.