But even at $600 a share, the company’s stock price still seems out of whack
Apple’s (AAPL) second fiscal quarter ends Saturday, and although the market spent Friday morning knocking the stuffing out of its share price (Apple fell back below $600 in mid-morning trading), Wall Street remains bullish on Tim Cook’s company.
How do we know? We’ve watched the analysts’ Q2 estimates for Apple climb more than 24% in the past 90 days — from an EPS of $7.86 three months ago to $9.78 today. (Even that’s low, according to our panel of independent analysts; their consensus is calling for Q2 earnings of more than $12.50.)
By contrast, the Street’s estimates for the rest of the stocks in the tech sector — from Amazon (AMZN) to Google (GOOG) — have been falling over the same period. Amazon’s EPS estimates have been particularly hard hit, down more than 80% over the the past three months.
In the bizzarro world of the equities market, however, Amazon is still rewarded with a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 150 to Apple’s 17, meaning AMZN is perceived as more than eight times more valuable than AAPL. See chart below.
Thanks to Stephen Rosenman, who took a crack at these calculations earlier this week. See here.
