Up, down, up, down. I believe I’ve mentioned Apple’s stock bipolar problem. I’m starting to think it’s all a clever Wallstreet scheme to make shareholders rich: bring the stock up, then at certain cleverly-coordinated points, drop it $30. Re-buy rapidly, then drop it again.
I remember when I was a wee youngen’, begging my dad to buy Apple stock at $13, the Friday before the iTunes Music Store was introduced. This was before everyone realized I was clairvoyant, of course, so he didn’t listen. Now I remind him every day that he could be retired if he did, and while that may have developed years of resentment, it does emphasize the fact that I’m undeniably brilliant. (I’m on an ego-boosting mission today, in case you’re wondering.)
Personal feelings of the matter aside, here are the facts: Apple’s stock closed at $194.30 today, a new all-time high. Now worth over $170 billion, they also officially passed Cisco in market value — trailing only Google ($223b) and Microsoft ($323b). And yesterday, to make matters sweeter (for some), Apple’s market value more than tripled that of Dell’s.
And you know what that means! The SEC-required Quote of the Century™, brought to you by Michael Dell, circa 1997, in response to a question about how he’d “fix” Apple:
What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.
Ah. Never gets old.
That is sweat! Or is it sweet?
Apple has split once since that Friday, so that $13 you're talking about is actually $6.50.
I bought some the Tuesday before the Friday.
Ah, corrected. Thanks Polizei!
So are you expecting or giving sweaters for Christmas this year, Dan?
I bought some at 30 (which became = 15 after split) but not nearly enough. Do I hear $200 by 2008?
I, too, was a youngun a few years back, and finally convinced my parents and their financial advisor to let me buy 10 shares of AAPL at a tick under $15. Shortly thereafter it was trading at 40-some, split, and now here we are. The dot-com mutual fund that my financial advisor talked me in to -of course- went belly-up shortly thereafter.