High p/e adds to Apple’s risk

Article Excerpt

APPLE INC. $182 is still a hold. The company (Nasdaq symbol AAPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 15.6 billion; Market cap: $2.8 trillion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.4; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apple.com) gets about half of its revenue from iPhone sales. The other half comes from sales of its Mac computers, iPad tablets and other products. Apple’s overall revenue in its fiscal 2024 first quarter, ended December 30, 2023, improved 2.1%, to $119.58 billion from $117.15 billion a year earlier. Higher sales of iPhones (up 6.0%) and Mac computers (up 0.6%) offset lower sales of iPads (down 25.3%); and wearables (down 11.3%). Revenue from services such as music streaming also rose 11.3% and accounted for 19% of Apple’s total revenue. Overall earnings gained 13.1%, to $33.92 billion from $30.00 billion. Earnings per share rose at a faster rate of 16.0%, to $2.18 from $1.88, on fewer shares outstanding. The stock now trades at a somewhat high 27.8 times Apple’s forecast fiscal…