While the NASDAQ continues its relative plateau, the stock for Apple Inc. has managed to achieve a 10 percent increase following their third quarter earnings announcement, after remaining relatively steady over a period of eight months.
This was far from what Wall Street and tech industry analysts had been anticipating, and it is has sent them scrambling to recreate their forecasts for Apple’s future. While some analysts are insisting that this sudden hike is only temporary and that the stock will resettle back to their previous numbers, others predict that by 2012, Apple will have achieved the top stock value position worldwide.
A great deal of attention is being focused on the movement of the mobile industry, and Apple’s progress is being considered by many to be a key indicator the direction and achievements of that marketplace. Though it would be easy enough to assume that earnings alone would be the primary data for consideration, Apple has shown that stock price is dependent on a great deal more than just that.
Though earnings do, of course, contribute, mobile market analysts have noted that Apple’s 90 percent earnings was not enough to drive the stock price upward. Either tremendously greater earnings would be required, or there is a need for influences from other factors, such as:
• New product releases,
• The global mobile environment, such as the sudden significant growth in China,
• The necessity for less expensive models in order to make Apple products more accessible to the market’s lower tier,
• The achievement of a mark at 100 million iPad sold,
• News of sizeable adoption of the iPad in the corporate world,
• A tremendous increase in the success of Macs,
• A sudden unexpected large acquisition,
• An important move into the mobile payment marketplace.
The last point is considered by many to be critical to Apple’s ability to maintain a top spot and continue and hold the increase of its stock price.
