Many people know my personality is similar to my investing style...I tend to go against the grain. As a techie, I don't love the Apple phones for a technical reason it's a closed source ecosystem. Unlike open source devices, Apple prefers that you use only their software and products. I have to remind people that Apple did not invent putting things in the cloud, sending files/messages should be something you should be able to do to any phone, and chargers are meant to be universal.
But in order to be a good investor your personal preferences should NOT interfere with buying stocks. While I don't own the phone, I don't dismiss many people around me use the phone. Or the fact that iTunes gift cards are a normal gift around the holidays without even asking me if I am an iPhone owner. But these aren't the reasons why I decided to stake a claim in the value play a few years ago. Many forgot back in 2016, Apple was trading under $100 dollars and there was fear they wouldn't be able to break into China and growth had stalled. But as Apple continued to reinvent itself, I saw value in a company starting to pay a dividend, expanding internationally, and growing a profitable services and payments business. So when there is fear in the water you stake a calculated claim on an old dog that still has a few tricks. Being in Risk Management, I had fun analyzing this stock and pulling the trigger when everyone was saying I got in too late. At an average of roughly $93 dollars, I was betting on a growing dividend, growth in China (maybe India), apps being the future (including iTunes), and logical determination that Apple phones would become larger as I knew people would share my frugal sensation over phone/tablets or phablets if you prefer (why have one of each when supersized phone does the trick). I am not placing a big bet on Payments yet because I tend to know a little bit about this space. While people love the technology...I think there needs to be one wallet that can travel with you as you change from an ApplePay, SamsungPay, GooglePay....and merchants are CHEAP so it will be a very long time until every store and gas station pay for upgrade technology that supports these new types of payments.
Many say value is dead but I argue, you have to look in the right places. I just read an article about how Warren Buffet and Berkshire are enjoying the amazing gains of Apple. I laughed because I'm wondering if the pupil is finally learning from the teacher...looking back I bought Apple prior to when Berkshire made their purchase:
Post Mentioning Apple:
https://urbanomics.blogspot.com/2016/10/how-to-invest-in-clinton-trump-election.html
Wall Street Journal: Buffet Bet Big on Apple
This has also happened with Teva Pharmaceuticals recently so I hope to keep the streak alive and maybe may a few future recommendations...one Oracle to another. :)
1 comment:
This is one of those landmark posts that's going to be referenced for years thank-you for sharing
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