My Patrix site
Back to the balance sheet
I first noted a correlation between Apple’s share price and its balance sheet a year ago. In February, when I last checked, Apple’s share price was priced nearly at 4.6 times its cash value. The stock has had a brief…
Category
Research
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What retail is hired to do: Apple vs. IKEA
“Within five years after discount retailing pioneer Korvette’s opened its first store in 1957, over a dozen copycat discounters had emerged. In contrast, the giant discount furniture retailer IKEA has never been copied.…
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The phone market in 2012: a tale of two disruptions
During the first quarter this year HTC, RIM and Nokia all surprised investors with bad news. The effect is evident in the share price of these companies which, in the case of RIM and Nokia is around book value, and in…
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400 million phones per quarter and everything's topsy turvy
Sony Ericsson is no more. The company remains but the brand is gone. Now the phones it makes will be sold under the Sony name. Unfortunately, that means we no longer get reports from the company on its volumes,…
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Which is best: hardware, software or services?
Apple’s recent margins are nothing short of spectacular. It’s hard to convey just how remarkable 47% gross margin and 39% operating margins are. For a company that sells hardware these are simply unheard-of numbers. The…
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What did I get right and wrong about the first quarter?
I analyze my performance every quarter to see if there is any pattern of error in my analysis. I devised a scoring method analogous to the grade point average system used in most US schools. You can read about the fourth…
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Jim Zellmer interviews me about my life
This is a transcript of a voice interview conducted April 19th 2012. The interview is available as an audio file here. — Jim Zellmer: I thought we’d start by describing your education from the beginning, Horace. Horace…
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Why was Wall Street surprised by Apple's performance?
The Earth’s axis is tilted relative to the orbital plane it follows around the Sun. The angle is about 23.44 degrees. Because of this axial tilt, the intensity of sunlight incident on the northern and southern…
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Apple's Growth Scorecard for the first quarter of 2012
For Apple 2012 started with almost the same growth as 2011 started. Q1 2011 saw earnings growth of 92% and Q1 2012 saw growth of 94%. As the following revenue growth table shows, the pattern for the last twelve months…
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Unforgiven: The consequences of profit failure in mobile phones
In June of last year I wrote a post titled “Does the phone market forgive failure?” It was written on the eve of Nokia’s Q2 2011 report highlighting the historic consequences of a dip into negative operating margins for…