Before Apple disclosed their Q1 Earnings Per Share Report for 2019, the media and analysts could not be further divided in their predictions. The last year has seen Apple shrouded in uncertainty, with numerous despondent stories regarding misinforming their board of directors on performance, false advertisement and legal issues with another tech giant. Clearly it has not been the best time for Apple and all yes are currently on Apple when the American Market opens.
Over the last 2 years, Apple has beaten EPS estimates 100% of the time and has beaten revenue estimates 88% of the time. Though with all the uncertainty, and rivals in the industry like Huawei and Samsung getting a firm foothold in the smartphone sector, which is deeply unsettling for Apple when you take into considering their flagship smartphone accounts for 42.5% of their entire market share.
The iPhone provides Apple with 61.65% overall for their revenue structure. Though last year, as mentioned above Apple were involved in several damaging stories concerning patent breaches, lying to consumers and just today a new Facetime security flaw giving users unwarranted access to others video and audio.
Bullish Sentiments
Healthcare — Speculation on Apple to become more proactive in incorporating themselves with other tech giants, most notably the Joint Health Venture between Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, Jeff Bezos, the founder, chairman and president of Amazon and Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
Utilizing this partnership Bezos, Buffett, and Dimon are creating ways to improve services for the United States employees by decreasing health costs. The super group believes the size and magnitude of the companies involved, should be more than adequate in providing the resources and infrastructure to combat current issues in health-care.
Integrity on their user’s security — unlike Facebook, Apple have an entirely different stance on user’s data. Where Facebook extract and absorb vast amounts of the user’s data when they like a link or photo, taking every morsel and selling it to the highest bidder. Apple CEO has even been noted in saying “You are not our product, you are our customer,”. Apple does not even collect data on iPhone keystrokes, Siri searches or even mapping routes.
Recently Apple has banned functions from both Facebook and Google on their IOS systems briefly until they complied and adhered to their stance user data. However, in the same week, Apple had a security concern of their own over a FaceTime bug, that allowed users to see their friend’s audio and visual conversations.
Game Subscription — Apple enforcing transparency with the apps available from their services, most notably terms and conditions scams that coerce users into paying for “free trials” upon renewal. The new guidelines say that “the amount that will be billed must be the most prominent pricing element in the layout.” making users fully aware of the applications billing requirements.
Bearish Sentiments
Legal Issues with Qualcomm — Apple also lost a lawsuit in China to Qualcomm as they were found out to be violating some of Qualcomm’s software patents, which resulted in a ban on sales of their flagship device including the 6S, 6S Plus,7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, and X.
Misinformation to board of directors — Tim Cook the CEO of the tech giants, had painted himself into a corner during the disclosure of sales figures to their board of directors, directly blaming China and the trade war for their performances.
Sales, Price and Production cut — In an effort to combat the impending ban on iPhone sales in China and lack of demand, Apple cut production and lowered the price on all models.
Information regarding past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
