Apple returns to over $100 per share ahead of Q1 2016 earnings report

Shares of AAPL closed above $100 on Friday, as investors bought in ahead of earnings and once again returned the iPhone maker's stock to three-digit territory.

Apple stock closed Friday at $101.43, up more than 5.1 percent in trading for the day from its previous close of $96.30.

Investors pushed the stock past the $100 mark just a few days before Apple will report the results of its first quarter of fiscal 2016. It's expected that Apple will again report record holiday sales of its blockbuster iPhone product line.

But AAPL stock has taken a beating in recent months as Wall Street watchers have expressed concern over the current March quarter and beyond. Speculation has been that the current iPhone 6s lineup won't sustain growth, and that the iPhone product lineup could see its first ever year-over-year decline in unit sales.

Shares of AAPL have languished below $100 since earlier this month, when they closed at that level for the first time since October of 2014.

Apple will report the results of its December quarter earnings next Tuesday after markets close. AppleInsider will have full, live coverage.

45 Comments

jimdreamworx 1075 comments · 21 Years

About 8 years ago

This is why Apple Pay has to succeed to the point of being used regularly by millions. That is the only way to bring its P/E to that of any other company that pushes things that are purchased on a far more regular basis than a new phone or app at an online store.

rogifan_old 725 comments · 9 Years

So Gene Munster is out there saying the stock will go up 50% with iPhone 7. Why? What's going to be so special about the 7 that will get people who didn't upgrade to the 6S (or 6) to upgrade? A new case design? Seriously? I think it's nonsense.

sog35 said:

jimdreamworx said:

This is why Apple Pay has to succeed to the point of being used regularly by millions. That is the only way to bring its P/E to that of any other company that pushes things that are purchased on a far more regular basis than a new phone or app at an online store.

Apple needs to change their accounting method for iPhone sales.

They should split the revenue between hardware and software. That way each iPhone would have $400 in hardware revenue and $250 in software revenue. Then spread the $250 in software revenue over 2 years. If Apple did this their 2015 revenue would look like this:

Hardware revenue - $140 billion
Software and Services - $90 billion
Other revenue - $5 billion

If Apple wants to be treated like a hardware/software company they need to report like one.

Sounds like financial engineering to me. Wall Street knows Apple isn't just a hardware company. Messing with the financials isn't going to get them to stop treating Apple like one if that's what they're choosing to do. I do think Apple should stop reporting sales figures and just report on install base. Reporting iPhone sales figures does nothing but provide a big fat target and Apple can't win. If they don't beat the target they're doomed and if they do they're still doomed because it creates difficult "comps". Stop reporting sales figures.

Also as I've said before I think Apple needs to hire someone top notch at the SVP level to run their cloud business. Eddy Cue isn't cutting it and has his plate full with iTunes, Music, TV and Pay. This would show people Apple is serious about the cloud machine learning/AI and would allow Eddy to focus exclusively on Apple's content business which have a lot of potential but also need a lot of work.

sockrolid 2789 comments · 14 Years

Rule #1 for AAPL investors: Buy on rumor, sell on news.

crowley 10431 comments · 15 Years

sog35 said:

jimdreamworx said:

This is why Apple Pay has to succeed to the point of being used regularly by millions. That is the only way to bring its P/E to that of any other company that pushes things that are purchased on a far more regular basis than a new phone or app at an online store.

Apple needs to change their accounting method for iPhone sales.

They should split the revenue between hardware and software. That way each iPhone would have $400 in hardware revenue and $250 in software revenue. Then spread the $250 in software revenue over 2 years. If Apple did this their 2015 revenue would look like this:

Hardware revenue - $140 billion
Software and Services - $90 billion
Other revenue - $5 billion

If Apple wants to be treated like a hardware/software company they need to report like one.

Transparent nonsense. You can't buy the software without the hardware, and once you've bought the hardware the software is free. There's only one product, the iPhone, which is (insufficiently, but necessarily) classed as hardware.