Despite Apple (AAPL) shares sliding 20% since hitting a record high of $705.07 in September, venture capitalist and managing director of Mediatech Capital Partners Porter Bibb said Thursday on CNBC that he still sees very strong upside in the world’s most valuable company.
“We are at an inflection point right now, and Apple invented some of this market with the iPad, and they dominate the market with their iPhones,” he said. “Smartphones around the world in the third quarter increased 50% over 2011, and only half of Americans who have cellphones have smartphones. It’s just the beginning of a bull market for these portable devices and iPad itself is just going through the roof. The iPad Mini sold 3 million units in the first three days it went on sale.”
When asked why Apple shares are down 20%, wiping off more than $130 billion of the company’s market cap in less than two months, Bibb said that Apple’s declining stock was “a reflection of the overall macroeconomic situation around the country and around the world.”
Bibb also rejected the idea that margins were the case that Apple was no longer an innovator.
“No product innovation, that’s crazy,” he said. “They have got a big, big innovation in Apple TV that is going to come out in 2013. That’s going to be shaking up the whole cable and television world.”
Last month, Apple said it expects its margins to shrink this holiday quarter as new gadgets have become more expensive to build.
Paul Meeks, a senior analyst at Saturna Capital, also sounded positive on the tech giant, saying the correction in Apple is exaggerated.
“I think after this downside, which I think is really exaggerated, that there should be a nice recovery in the name, particularly if you take a look at this long term,” he said. “You can’t really worry about what happens in the short term.”
Apple’s share price drop since September comes on the heels of fantastic growth since the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010.
Apple shares ended down $20.25, or 3.63%, to $537.35 in late trading Thursday.
The Cupertino-tech giant still has the world’s heftiest market valuation at $505 billion.
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“Last month, Apple said it expects its margins to shrink this holiday quarter as new gadgets have become more expensive to build.”
No they didn’t.
They said that new products always have a higher build cost in their first quarter due to learning curves, ramp up and other costs, and that this quarter they have a very high number of new products coinciding.
Your statement implies that the costs of these new products would remain high. Apple explicitly said that they would not.