Apple Inc (AAPL)

If you take away the exciting package, the shine and the glitter, this company has been operating on all fronts. The smart phone market in North America is saturated, and they are trying to grow in emerging markets. Globally 24% of the world uses smart phones today, so there is still lots of adoption that can take place. They continue to innovate and the new innovations are gaining traction. Dividend yield of 1.61%.

His single biggest position. They are in a product cycle upgrade. Incremental sales in iPhones are from other manufacture’s customers. He loves his iWatch. It is an inexpensive company. 39% return on equity. Their services business is the most profitable part of their business, such as iTunes or the monthly subscription to iCloud.

This has been enormously successful. The difficulty now is that it is the biggest company in the world by market cap and the actual rate of growth is slowing. If you have some profits, you might want to take some.

Has a model price of $162.95, a 25% upside. A year from now, he has a model price calculation at $175. He likes this company and would try to get it on a pullback.

(A Top Pick July 10/14. Up 37.1%.) This choice came down to the whole company and their suite of product offerings. He has taken some money off the table. This will continue to grow. Thinks it would be very hard to pull people away from their Apple products.

Not his kind of company. Has been thinking for years that it was overvalued, but it keeps on going up. It does share buybacks which makes no sense to him. They’ve taken on debt that also makes no sense to him. At some point he thinks they will have difficulties.

Thinks it will go higher. He does not know if the iWatch will be successful, however. He is more concerned about market risk in the back half of the year so he does not like to look at stock at all time highs. Don’t chase it here. Don’t put new money into it.

(A Top Pick April 10/14. Up 75.36%.) This still goes higher. Still a cheaply valued stock. Beat earnings again last week. The iWatch and Apple pay are going to be additive to earnings, and more importantly additive to the eco system.

(A Top Pick Oct 14/14. Up 32.6%.) This company is always going to go from a position that it is such a big company, people won’t believe it is going to grow any more. The iPhone 6 is a very specialized iPhone and is taking market share from other vendors. Dividend yield of 1.61%.

Earnings are coming out on Monday and there is a lot to be cautious about when earnings are coming out. This stock can be a bit weak following earnings. This is a growth story and it is hard to find periods of negative strength for it. Technically it is consolidating right now and forming a bit of a triangle, so you are waiting to see it breakout. There is a developers’ conference coming up, and that is where investors get really excited into June, so that might be the time to pick it up on the cheap.

Believes the biggest theme in this market is consumer globally. This is probably the greatest consumer product company on the planet. Very inexpensive trading at 13/14 X earnings. IPhone 6 sales, in the most recent quarter, had only about 15% going to current iPhone users, meaning they are taking market share from everyone. Their service business is 10% of revenues now. Dividend yield of 1.48%.

(A Top Pick April 14/14. Up 73.52%.) Sold some of his holdings in order to get his weighting down to 5% of his portfolio. This remains an exceptionally exciting business to own. You can Buy at these prices. A well-managed company that is capable of creating new product categories and attracting intelligent people to work for them.

Good companies that have high ROE’s and generate lots of free cash flow with great branded products are going to grow. Thinks they are going to earn $8.40 this year and well over $9 next year. Add in the cash balance and trading at 10 or 11 times earnings, it may be the best company in the world. Dividend yield of 1.47%.

Because the market has been so frothy, based on the free money, he would wait for a pullback in this as well as in most stocks.

With the amount of cash they have, there is a cushion to see dividend raises continuing to come forth. They have really executed on all fronts. Their foreign expansion of smart phones is continuing. Last quarter, sales in China were up 70% year-over-year. They still have a very small market share in Asia, so there is further upside potential. They are continuing to innovate which is important for the future.