Since the market bottom in March of 2009 Apple (AAPL) has been a great performer. My question is, will their stock continue to out perform the market? Apple has a great business and is fundamentally sound, with billions of dollars in liquidity they could weather a storm. There are some issues that Apple needs to address, the first being Steve Jobs. As a going concern they will have to be able to continue without him. They need to show the investment community that there is more than one creative mind at Apple outside of Steve that is developing these new products. They need to take a leaf out of Warren Buffets book, yes he has been the investment mastermind but if something were to happen Berkshire already has the next captain of the ship waiting in the wings. Who is this person at Apple? And if this person does exist, he needs to be placed in the public eye so that shareholders know them in case Jobs continues to have health problems shareholders can sleep peacefully at night.
Also how is Apple going to continue to create shareholder value. When the share price appreciation stops how are they going to properly compensate shareholders. When you have a war chest the size of Apple at some point in time inflation is going to eat away at the returns since such a large amount of assets are in cash. So they are going to have to put the cash to work in the business or institute a dividend, because that is what mature businesses do.
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