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Analyst Peer Pressure (1/20/00)
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Wow, maybe the curse has been lifted! Traditionally when Apple posts better-than-expected end-of-quarter results, Wall Street's reaction is as reliable as it is unfathomable: AAPL's price starts bottoming out faster than the box office receipts for the last "Ernest" flick. But not this time; the day after Apple's latest financial victory, AAPL rallied like a champ, actually hitting a new all-time-high of $121.50 per share in the middle of the day. Once the dust cleared, the stock had closed at $113.50-- still up almost seven points over the previous day's close.
So what was different this time that changed investors' minds? Was it the signs of massive growth? The ton of cash on hand? Steve's new jet? It's gotta be the jet. Well, okay, the jet and the slew of analyst upgrades that cascaded in right after Apple's numbers went public. According to the Mac Observer, upgrading AAPL is the hip new activity making the rounds in the offices of Wall Street analysts these days-- simply everybody is doing it. Kurt King of Banc of America raised his AAPL price target to $145. Richard Chu of SG Cowen moved AAPL from "neutral" to "buy" and raised his price target to $135. Rick Schutte of Goldman Sachs moved Apple to his "Recommended for Purchase" list. Michael Kwatinetz reiterated his "buy" rating and upped his estimates for Apple's fiscal 2000 earnings. And Salomon Smith Barney got back on the bandwagon by upgrading Apple back to "buy."
See? All the cool analysts are doing it. Pretty soon you won't be invited to any A-list financial parties unless AAPL's on your "buy" list, so analysts beware-- peer-group alienation awaits you if you dis Apple. Just imagine, sitting home on a Saturday night, shunned by your former cronies, relabeling your tax files while all the other analysts are out whooping it up. Don't let this happen to you. Upgrade AAPL today!
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SceneLink (2044)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 1/20/00 episode: January 20, 2000: All of Wall Street jumps in to upgrade AAPL after Wednesday's glowing quarterly results. Meanwhile, Steve's obsession with amassing aircraft is revealed, and QuickTime finally says howdy to Applescript...
Other scenes from that episode: 2045: Stockpiling Air Power (1/20/00) Hey, about that jet that Steve received as a "special executive bonus..." Do you suppose there's any particular reason the Board went with a Gulfstream V? Sure, we hear that the GV is the ultimate executive status symbol and all, but we can't help but wonder if there was another factor to the decision, especially after eagle-eyed faithful viewer Harold noticed something interesting while cruising the Gulfstream web site... 2046: QuickTime Gets Scripty (1/20/00) Amid little to no fanfare, QuickTime 4.1 is now available for your streaming pleasure. Those of you who keep up on this stuff probably recall that this latest version has actually been completed for several weeks-- for a while it was mistakenly made publicly available on one of Apple's European download servers earlier in the month...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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