Apple Inc (AAPL)

Thinks $750 is the base value of what the company is worth, excluding cash on the balance sheet. You just have to give them time. Their competition is falling by the wayside.

Announced a stock buy back, increased the dividend and did a stock split of 7 for 1 which has given people some confidence the company is going to listen to those who want them to outline a capital allocation or a philosophy/strategy that will be shareholder and stakeholder friendly. This has given the stock some confidence. What matters here are new products. We can talk about how many phones they have sold, etc. but this is not the most important thing. New innovation and its acceptance by the public is the most important thing.

He is excited that there are new products later this year that will move the needle. IPhone 6, for example. IPhone watch is going to come out. It will be popular. New Ipads and new Macbook. Technology in the phone will become an important part of payment technology.

Valuation is still compelling. The big knock lately was no new products. But with an increased R&D budget for the last several years and the greatest engineering team in the world, he believes we will see something before the end of the year.

(A Top Pick Feb 19/13. Up 18.21%.) This is still a tremendous franchise trading at a really low price. If you take the cash off per share, it is trading at around 9X earnings. He sees this being worth $700-$800.

It is a really hated stock. Generates a lot of cash flow. 8 times earnings so it represents great value. You need some innovation and new products for it to move. It’s hard to know exactly when that is going to happen. Thinks it will be in the next 12 to 24 months.

There was a dip, but it recovered quite nicely. They were busy buying back shares. His issue with this company is what is their next leg. If they penetrate the Chinese market, he wants to know what kind of margin they’ll get and the type of phone they will have.

Has been a little disappointed in the last couple of months. The issue he has is that everybody just focuses on the iPhone numbers now. They are not realizing there is a strong franchise under their very loyal clientele. They need to step it up with some advance product announcements in the near-term. Expects this will be pretty quiet for 4-5 months and you’ll collect a nice dividend.

Not a huge fan of this company. Don’t confuse a good company with a good product. The growth of the company has been so large for such a relatively short period of time that expectations are such that this will continue. Feels there is more downside here longer-term.

Turning out a ton of cash. 30% of their market cap right now is in cash and will be 40% within 2 years. They are going to have another kick at the can with a refresh cycle with iPhone 6. Upgrades will be close to double what it was for iPhone 5. In China, with China Mobile, they have just scratched the surface. They are in 16 cities there and by the end of the year they say they are going to be in 300. With all that said, the investment in this company is in innovation. 2.44% yield.

Feels the numbers are possibly quite good both from the iPad side and from the iPhones. Consumer technology is behaving pretty well. This is one that you could own. It will be hard to have a huge win out of it. They have a tough act to follow and it will be hard for them to re-create the growth that they have had over time. Expects there are better spots to be invested in.

A bigger position in his funds. Likes the fundamentals of the company. Lots of cash flow and continue to innovate. He believes the company has way too much cash and it should go to dividends. M&A has been a pretty spotty strategy for the Apple. They are an innovation company. If you get an apple device in people’s hands they start buying the other products.

4^th quarter is becoming more cyclical for all the phone companies, so there is a good chance that the next quarter coming up could be a little bit weaker. Offsetting that will be the positive impact and the look-through as to what is going on with China Mobile and their sales. Another catalyst for this stock will be the new i-Watch they will be releasing.

(A Top Pick Dec 20/12. Up 5.63%.) Surprised it hadn’t done better. Still believes in the stock and that it should be trading closer to $600 a share.

When shares are bought back, pushed by activists, it often does not work. Typically share buy backs are positive.