RUSH: It is widely, widely known in this audience that I am a — well, just an Apple Fanboy. It is widely known that I’m very much interested in tech, gizmos, gadgets and so forth, it’s a hobby, and so I get a lot of questions in the e-mail about Apple. And I’m literally being inundated with people asking me what in the world’s happening with Apple’s stock price, ’cause it’s getting scary. I mean, Drudge had a headline yesterday that if Apple crashes, the country crashes. And Apple has reached a dangerous point in the way Wall Street looks at things.
Apple’s stock price has fallen below its 200-day rolling average price. They’ve recovered from that 17 times, but Wall Street — this is so frustrating, and people are writing about their frustration. Apple just had a great quarter. They just had a record-setting quarter, and these analysts are talking about how scared they are. Folks, it’s true, they’re just a bunch of analysts at these investment shops that are creating this. But if you’re gonna play Wall Street, this is the game you enter.
It’s like getting into politics, complaining about the media. Sorry. You’re not gonna change it. If you’re gonna buy stock, if you get in the stock market and then get serious about it, you’re gonna have to learn that a bunch of people that have no idea what they’re talking about, except the stock price in many cases. Analysts at brokerage houses, who don’t know, who don’t work at Apple, who don’t know what Apple’s doing. They have to guess. And they have the power — you know, Apple can announce a record number of iPhones and these analysts can say, “We’re disappointed. We expected them to sell two million more. We think they’re in trouble.” And the bottom drops out.
It’s just the way it is. So if you’re gonna play the stock market, if you’re gonna buy Apple or any other stock you have to understand that this is what happens. And there’s another thing, this 200 day rolling average, the Apple stock price has now fallen below that, and that historically has meant, when that happens to companies, that the immediate future is not rosy. It’s happened to Apple 17 times, it’s been recorded, and they’ve roared back from it each time. But there are other concerns that people have, including I, including me.
I think what’s driving this recent spate of analyst negativity is a consensus view that the Apple Watch has not taken off yet. Apple hasn’t broken down sales, they haven’t announced — and they said they wouldn’t. So it’s not that they’re holding back. They never said they were gonna announce unit sales, and they haven’t. So these analysts are doing everything they can to try to find out what the real number is. Supply chain checks and kind — and the iPad sales have slowed. So there’s a lot of room for people that just aim at negativity to be negative.
But there was a guest, Neil Cavuto had a guest on I guess today, just happened today, Fox Business Network, Cavuto Coast to Coast. Apple activist shareholder Justin Danhof about the volatility in the stock, and Cavuto said, “You’re really concerned about Tim Cook. You’re worried that Cook’s dropping the ball. Your argument is that Cook and Apple are distracted, all this social stuff that they’re getting into, the doing business with Iran thing, it just distracts from what their real mission is. Is that pretty much right?”
DANHOF: Absolutely. I was listening to Rush Limbaugh the other day, and he had something to say that’s very applicable to Apple.
CAVUTO: Now, that shocks me, that you were listening to Rush. That’s out of character for you, but go ahead.
DANHOF: That it was easier for him to get to the top than stay on top. And for Apple to stay on the top, you’re right, they need to focus on innovation. So a lot of what we’ve been seeing in Apple with the social issues, with things like the Apple Watch, this autonomous car, Project Titan, it’s a distraction from the core business.
RUSH: And people who advise people how to invest their money are losing confidence in telling ’em to buy Apple. That’s what these analysts downgrading Apple means. They’re not willing to recommend that their clients buy Apple. And one of the reasons is, I mean, Apple, they’re showing up at every gay rights march, they’re talking about diversity. They promoted Lisa Jackson to make sure that their solar plants are green and they’re all concerned about global warming and climate change, good citizens of the earth.
And these guys that invest millions, “Screw that! How are you gonna keep the iPhone ahead of everybody? When are you gonna bring the iPad back? Why don’t you tell us how many watches — screw all this other social silly stuff. Jobs never did that.” And that’s the reason, folks, if you want the answer and it’s right there from Justin Danhof on the Fox News Business channel.
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RUSH: By the way, I do not totally concur with that analysis of Apple that you just heard. I have my own, as I always would be, unique analysis, and I might share it with you later.
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RUSH: My take is a little different than the sound bite we just had from Justin Danhoff. There are a lot of people who think that the CEO’s folks focus on social issues is a distraction from innovation at Apple.
They’ve got this project to build an electric car. That’s what Project Titan is that he referred to here, and these analysts ask, “What the hell is that? I mean, even if you have one it’s not gonna be up and running for four years. How can we recommend your stock on the basis of that? You guys aren’t a car company.” I mean, that’s attraction they have. “If you can’t reverse the slide in iPad sales, and if your watch is having trouble, what are you doing making a car?”
The CEO would say, “You don’t understand our business, and my job is to grow it.” There’s any number of explanations here. But my take on this is a little bit different. Because I’m not a supreme negativist, as a general rule. My attitude is not pessimistic about everything. Some people are. I mean, it’s a natural state. Thinking positive takes work, right? It takes effort. You need lessons to think positive. You gotta go out and buy a book to find out how to do it.
But we all know how to be negative. It’s our natural inclination. So I may get back to that. Anyway I’ve got some other things I want to get to here, in addition to that, but I do think the explanation for this is interesting, and some of this concern about the focus on social issues is, “Ah, it’s who they are. It’s nothing new for Apple.” I just got an e-mail from a friend that made a good point, though. It’s this. A quality product…
Let’s just use the iPhone. A quality product goes on sale, what do people do? They flock to buy it. People that have not been able to afford it think it’s the greatest day in the world — “You mean the iPhone’s on sale?” — and they make tracks. The company that makes the iPhone goes on sale, and the stock price falls. “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! The company’s imploding! Oh, my God, this is horrible. We gotta get out.”
When the iPhone goes on sale, do you say, “Wow, must be a bunch of crap; I’m not buying one of these”? Nope. If you’ve been frozen out, if you haven’t been able to afford one, that’s when you go get one. The consequently, stock prices plummets like — to a lot of people have wanted to buy it, haven’t been able to afford it, this is a gold mine opportunity because Apple’s history is that they roar back from all these things, even this 200-day rolling average statistic they’ve fallen behind.
They’ve always come back from this having happened to them 17 different times. Hell, Kathryn went out and bought some Apple stock the other day. I don’t have… It’s top was around 130 after it split, so that was close to like 900 bucks before day. I don’t have it in front of me. It’s 130 to 114 right now or whatever. I mean, it’s had a significant drop, but it’s a buying opportunity for people that haven’t been able to afford it.
The question is, do you continue waiting and wait for it to drop more before you buy or do you take the plunge now? Remember our old buddy Pascal? If it’s happened once, it can happen again. It’s much more likely than that that has happened will happen again than something that has never happened will happen. Apple came close, but they’ve never gone bust. They’ve always roared back.