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Upstairs, Downstairs (1/14/99)
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Okay, we don't have the data right in front of us, and we're way too lazy to go dig it up just to make sure, but doesn't it seem like every time Apple posts a profit even bigger than Wall Street was expecting, their stock price plummets? That's definitely what happened after the Q1 '99 results came out-- the day after Apple once again beat the Street, AAPL plummeted eleven percent from over $46 to just over $41. That's a strange way to celebrate a comeback. One reason for the sudden decline was one of those pesky analysts had downgraded AAPL from a "buy" to a "neutral." A Reuters story has more on the subject.
The analyst in question is one Richard Gardner of Salomon Smith Barney, who cut his rating on Apple's stock due to concerns about second-quarter performance. As any avid Apple-watcher knows, Q2 is typically Apple's weakest quarter of the year. Gardner specifically expressed "issues" with iMac pricing, claiming that those fabulous Q1 inventory numbers wouldn't have been nearly so good if CompUSA and Best Buy hadn't spent December selling off their iMacs "at a $50 to $60 loss," though CompUSA claims that their overall sales of Apple equipment was profitable during December. And he thinks things are only going to get tougher this quarter, since Intel made too many Celeron chips and so the market will be flooded with cheap PC's. (Yeah, but will those cheap PC's be available in translucent orange? Hah!)
Amazing what one analyst's opinion can do to a stock price, no? Granted, we're guessing a lot of the sell-off was also just people wanting to take their profit and run, since some other analysts disagree with Gardner's analysis and are upgrading AAPL. And it's also worth keeping in mind that $41 is nothing to sneeze at, either, given that just over a year ago the stock was hovering at around $13. Hands up, who else is still kicking themselves for not buying back then?
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 1/14/99 episode: January 14, 1999: All it takes is one meanie to send Apple's stock price into a tailspin. Meanwhile, Apple prepares to lay a little science on the Best Buy sales staff, and Connectix still hasn't been slapped with a Sony lawsuit over its Virtual Game Station product...
Other scenes from that episode: 1269: My Fair Best Buy (1/14/99) So from a Macintosh standpoint, you think the Best Buy sales experience generally leaves a lot to be desired, do you? Heck, we'll go further than that-- it stinks. Frankly, we're hard-pressed to see what all the fuss was about with Best Buy leaving the Mac market and then returning to sell the iMac; if anyone can tell us how, exactly, Best Buy of today is any better than Best Buy from the Performa days, we'd really like to know... 1270: To Sue or Not To Sue (1/14/99) As far as Connectix Virtual Game Station is concerned, we keep waiting for the other shoe to drop-- the legal shoe, that is. As you almost certainly are aware, there are rumors flying all over the place that Sony is preparing to sue Connectix for releasing this software that emulates a Playstation game console...
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