Dray
Finance Student, Stock Investor, Technology & Business
Apple's valuation pays too hefty a premium for its expected long-term earnings growth. Its forward P/E-to-growth ratio is 2.58; even if the market sees its hardware moat and ability to exploit others' AI investments despite underinvesting itself as a winning strategy, that premium is too high. x.com
Apple's roughly 40 times trailing and 37 times forward earnings make the shares too expensive ahead of next week's results. A short looks reasonable, though a sell-the-news reaction after earnings remains uncertain. x.com x.com
Apple is a safe haven amid AI-stock volatility and will gain momentum if it persists over the next two weeks through the midterms. New products and another defensive day bring a momentum push toward $358, then $367 in November closer. x.com
Apple's price is held up by index dispersion and gamma positioning rather than its business value. Its supposed bull case is that, as a non-AI name, it moves inversely to AI stocks; only flows strong enough to break the gamma grip permit price discovery. Fair value is 75% below the current price. x.com
Apple's growth valuation gives too much credit to a $2,000 folding iPhone and a touchscreen MacBook. Its 36.16 forward P/E and 3.54 PEG are higher than recent readings over the past two years, making this a point to take serious profits. x.com
Apple has the most predictable cash flows, including future cash flows, and that dependability appears to be what investors reward. Its P/E is about 40 versus 27 for Nvidia, 22 for Meta and 16 for Alphabet; Meta's free cash flow has turned negative. Leveraged build-out companies have been hit hardest while Apple has outperformed, but Apple investors could be wrong and the point at which its premium becomes too high remains open. x.com x.com x.com
Apple's valuation no longer fits its growth, making the risk-reward unattractive despite an unmatched brand and business quality. Its forward P/E of about 35x is well above its long-term average and near its highest in years, while growth is forecast at mid-single digits, around 7% a year. After a 54% gain over the past year, Apple would be hit hard in a correction. A more reasonable valuation or a growth surprise would make it attractive again. x.com x.com
Apple looks unattractive at 31x next-12-month EPS as memory prices are set to hurt both its revenue and gross margins. Not investing heavily in AI capex or LLM training helps in the near term but carries longer-term risks. x.com
Apple can be the AI winner in consumer agents, which could push the stock to new highs. The new smart Siri launches next month with full AI in-app developer tools, a potential breakthrough: local, private agents for billions of people with easy UX and access to all on-device data. Near term the stock was priced to perfection at over 40x earnings, and Q2 missed and guided lower on memory supply issues and weak services. @MilkRoadAI also notes the App Store's first sales decline in a decade. x.com
Apple's price tag isn't justified by its earnings growth or its lack of innovation. Analysts expect $153B of net income by 2028 versus $104B in 2024, roughly a 10% CAGR, so good returns need the elevated multiple to hold or rise toward 50x. Apple hasn't innovated since AirPods, Siri fumbled its door to AI, and its dominance rests on no one wanting to compete while consumer tastes shift fast, as BlackBerry showed. The stock isn't expected to crash, but likely won't rise over the next five years. … Show more