Apple most valuable computer maker in the world

Here's the link.

http://stocks.us.reuters.com/stocks/performance.asp?symbol=AAPL.O&WTmodLOC=L2-LeftNav-18-Performace

To all the posts here quoting AAPL's P/E, please follow the link below. P/E has to be evaluated in respect to a company's growth potential. As you can see, AAPL has traded at much higher P/Es in the past 5 years. It's actually trending downward as the price has grown dramatically. The PEG ratio is actually a much better indicator if you trust the analyst's predictions... which you usually can't.

@13 Mac Junkie: Sony (SNE) has a market cap of 45B, not even worth mentioning here.

@19 Guy: Not sure what point you are trying to make with that last paragraph. The article was pretty careful to use market cap (value). Nothing was said about size of the company.

#10 & 17 are right. I won't touch Apple Stock right now, with a P/E of 47, and a 2008 projection of 37 and 2009 of 30 too much risk. The stock was a buy according to most analysts only 6 months ago it has been downgraded to overweight. With a P/E of that number something has to give, anything over a 30 or so means it is a bubble. You have to ride it till just before it bursts.

A lower stock price isn't necessarily bad for a company, stock holders yes. Microsoft has a stagnant stock yet had more net income than Wal-Mart with 1/6th the gross income.

Also as far as market cap, Wal-Mart has about $178 Billion, so if Apple passes Wal-Mart would you say they are a bigger company? If you did, you would be insane.

You have to ask yourself if there's a little bit of irrational exuberance, though. A P/E of 53?! You gotta wonder how sustainable that is - the historical average for most companies is somewhere around 20. (IBM is 16.88, HP's is 20, Dell is 22).

You have to take into consideration Microsoft when looking at the market share of the other PC makers. Apple profits directly from it's hardware and software sales. Microsoft has a market cap > 290B.

@13....Sony is comparable to Apple? Sony makes everything under the sun is a consumer electronics company that makes computers. Apple is a computer company that makes consumer electronics. No, I don't care if you think Apple is a consumer electronics company now....the mac is the center of their technology experience not the ipod.

@Mike:

"You sell lemons and make $50 doing so. Meanwhile, I sell lemons and oranges and make $110. can you really call me the "most valuable lemon salesman", especially if you factor in that $70 of my $110 is from orange sales?"

Just because I make $50 in lemon sales, it doesn't mean you necessarily do... oranges could account for less than $70 of your total revenues.

Other than that, spot on - I think it's more accurate to say "technology company involved in computers" or something less specific.

Did someone compare Apple to Sony, they make computers too and are more equal in their full line of product offerings...

@4 Yes IBM sold their computer business to Lenovo but they still make Laptops for corporate contracts. My company has a contract with IBM and they replace our laptops every year with new ones and their is not a single Lenovo component in them. I believe that still makes them a PC maker.