Last summer, I took a giant leap of faith. Instead of suggesting where to invest and then never revisiting my original thesis, I pledged to put my own money behind 10 stocks. My goal was to build the World's Greatest Retirement Portfolio. Almost one year through, and the portfolio is dominating the S&P 500 -- outperforming the index by 18 percentage points!
Today, I'm happy to state that after almost a year, I'm just as bullish on one of those 10 -- Apple
Revisiting my thesis
In what was a sad omen of things to come, I led off my original buy recommendation with a cautionary caveat: "Quite possibly the biggest drawback when investors look to Apple is the health of CEO Steve Jobs."
The loss of Jobs was a shock to the world and does have serious ramifications for the company moving forward. The ability to produce the next "it" gadget was one of the two reasons I invested in the company, and though I think Jobs played an integral role in developing such gadgets, I'm giving Jobs' attempts at institutional greatness the benefit of the doubt for now.
The other major force driving my decision to invest with the company was the enormous potential abroad. Not only did the company do well domestically, but international sales have also been astounding over the past two quarters abroad.
Region |
Net Sales Increase |
Operating Income Increase |
---|---|---|
Americas | 67% | 93% |
Europe | 51% | 61% |
Japan | 120% | 179% |
Asia-Pacific | 83% | 98% |
Source: Apple SEC filings. Percentages rounded to the nearest whole number.
This has helped create a situation where, had you invested $4,000 at the time of my original recommendation, you'd be sitting on a gain of more than $2,700, as opposed to the S&P 500's flat performance, even factoring in dividend reinvestment.
Why I'm still bullish
But patting myself on the back for the past year won't do any good moving forward. I believe Apple still has tons of room to grow and further industries to disrupt.
Research In Motion
Apple's opportunity in the smartphone category is still huge among consumers, too. It doubled its market share over the past year, but iPhones still command only 7.9% of the world market -- far behind leaders Samsung and Nokia
And when it comes to operating systems, Apple is increasingly in a two-horse race with Google's
Operating System | Q1 2011 Market Share | Q1 2012 Market Share |
---|---|---|
Android | 36% | 56% |
iOS | 17% | 23% |
Symbian | 28% | 9% |
Research In Motion | 13% | 7% |
Source: Gartner. Worldwide smartphone sales. Market share rounded to nearest whole number.
Internationally, Apple's iPhones are being outsold by Samsung 3-to-1 in China, but that discrepancy could soon disappear. The company is rumored to be working with China Mobile
A solid bet for your retirement
And of course, all of this ignores the fact that Apple now offers a dividend or the potential of a blockbuster iTV release. Those things are icing on the cake for me.
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