When everyone thinks alike, everyone is likely to be wrong.
If you wish to keep from guessing wrong, learn to think contrarily. –Humphrey Neill
CSInvesting: Humphrey Neill wasn’t advising to blindly go against the “crowd” but to think things through rationally. For example, investors might be excited by the new invention of the air conditioner, but the second-order effects were more powerful like increase in demand for real estate in Southern cities in the USA.
...............
The BOOK: NEILL(H_B_)-The_Art_of_Contrary_Thinking_(1985)
Critique of the book 2016-07-29_BR_ML
Contrary thinking in action….
Has Apple Stock Peaked?
December 3, 2012|by Timothy Lutts
Has Apple (AAPL) Stock Peaked?
In the Footsteps of Coca-Cola
The Next Apple?
—
—
The Dirty Word
The word is deceleration, which is a fancy phrase for slowing down. And Apple is decelerating! That third quarter earnings growth of 23% followed second quarter earnings growth of 20%. Those were the slowest quarters since mid-2009! And looking forward, the projected 12% growth in 2013 is even slower, though 18% for 2014 provides hope.
Now, 12% growth is nothing to sneeze at; many companies would kill for 12% growth. And 18% is excellent! But it’s quite a comedown from the nine consecutive quarters from 2010 into 2012 where Apple’s earnings grew more than 50%! It’s deceleration.
And that brings us to the stock’s performance, which is where the rubber meets the road. Because more important than numbers, more important than sentiment, is the stock’s actual performance. So here’s Apple’s chart, since the 2009 bottom.
As on Coke’s chart, you see the earnings line, trending higher, but rounding somewhat recently; that’s the deceleration of earnings. There’s no dividend line on this chart; Apple’s dividend history is short but healthy. But there is another line on this chart and that’s the RP line. RP stands for Relative Performance; it depicts the performance of the stock relative to the broad market.
Note that over the past four years, whenever AAPL corrected, its RP line basically flattened out (ignoring the tiny weekly movements). But in this year’s correction, AAPL’s RP line turned down, and for eight weeks, AAPL performed worse than the overall market.
Now, this underperformance alone is not the kiss of death. Many stocks can pull out of similar corrections and move out to new highs.
But look back at Coke’s chart. If you look at the RP line, you’ll see the same pattern! From 1964 through 1973, KO was pretty healthy, beating the broad market overall, and holding its own in corrections. But after 1973, as sentiment turned, and the selling pressures slowly overwhelmed buying pressures, KO’s RP turned clearly negative, beginning a pattern that lasted many years longer than most investors could stomach.
And that’s very likely where AAPL is today.
So when you put it all together…
• The extremely high market cap
• The extremely positive public opinion
•The extremely high level of institutional ownership
• The deceleration of earnings growth
• The weakening relative performance line
…it looks ominous.
...................
But to be a successful investor, you need to put the odds in your favor, and today, the odds are not good for investors in Apple. See more http://www.timothylutts.com/
ALAS, NEVER CEASE TO DO YOUR OWN THINKING.
You might have sold out of a uniquely profitable company as AAPL went on to triple over the next five years!~
