Summary: How well did Apple do last quarter? Image Source: FinePrintNYC.com Yesterday Apple reported they earned $18 billion on $75 billion in sales. Earnings were up 50% from a year ago, and sales up 30%. They sold almost 75 million iPhones—34,000 every hour, every day, all quarter long. There clearly was a lot of pent-up demand for a larger phone. Well done Tim Cook. Apple is now one of the largest enterprises on the planet. Their cash alone is worth more than 99% of the stocks in the US. Tim Cook’s background is in Operations, and that’s a good thing. The logistics of designing, building, and selling so many intricate devices is daunting. There are so many moving parts! Source: Wall Street Journal And that’s what has many worried. They’ve become so big it’s hard to think what they’ll do for an encore—or how they can continue to move the needle. At some point, the law of large numbers kicks in and growth has to slow. But Apple isn’t just rolling dice. They’re building and selling billions of products that change the way the world works. The fundamentals of finance haven’t changed, though, and it’s still smart to diversify. But for now, it seems the four major food groups are protein, carbs, fats, and Apple. Douglas R. Tengdin, CFA Chief Investment Officer Phone: 603-224-1350 Leave a comment if you have any questions—I read them all! Follow me on Twitter @GlobalMarketUpd www.chartertrust.com • www.moneybasicsradio.com www.globalmarketupdate.net
