I am not an investor or anything, but isn’t this the way its supposed to work, a company makes good products, the people who buy them like them and then invest in the company, isn’t that supposed to be the very nature of a free market, publicly held company? Is this article simply existing because, for once in this world, something is happening the right way for the right reasons as opposed to being some kind of economic/political power play and manipulation?

I like the lemonade that the kids sell on the end of my block in the summertime, but I'm not going to buy into their lemonade stand at the equivalent of a $10.2 billion market cap.

A company does not sell that many stock shares to just their fans!!! What the h*** is wrong with the media? Can they not accept Apple's success? Why must they constantly make excuses for it? I don't see them doing this to Micro$oft who never innovates, never comes up with anything of its own, dictates to the market and practices unfair competition around the world.

You invest in the spring before lemonade season to reap the most benefits not august when it is selling fast. Now I am not saying it is August and certainly not October for Apple, but investor advise like this is generally ridiculous if not misleading. This guys advise is very contrary to investor logic and maybe that is what he is saying about apple investors.

This statement also assumes that it is only apple fans that are driving Apple stock prices. Also a little silly and naive.

Durandal12 says: " I am not an investor or anything, but isn’t this the way its supposed to work, a company makes good products, the people who buy them like them and then invest in the company, isn’t that supposed to be the very nature of a free market, publicly held company?"
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No. You buy iPods because they are the best. But you invest in companies that may not be glamorous but are managed and ran well to *make you money* i.e. Walmart, Dell, Microsoft, etc. Two very different animals. You will know once you become an investor.

Nobody is saying that Apple is a bad company. Nobody is saying that it doesn't innovate. Nobody is saying that it's not successful. All the author is saying is that perhaps buying the stock at a P/E multiple greater than 70 is a decision that some investors are making more with their hearts than with their heads.

Or you can buy apple the day before iTunes launch and make 70% return in a year like I did. You don't HAVE to invest in Dell or M$ to make money. All it takes is a little research. You will know once you become an investor.

well, maybe I should have been more specific with my comment, thought it was intended to be humorous / ironic, etc., generally the assumption would be that if a company has been making great products for a couple of decades, odds are that they will continue to do so for at least the near future, and by virtue of having good products the company should do well (if Bobby’s lemonade stand made great lemonade this year, because, say it has a better recipe then Timmy’s, well, maybe Bobby will have better hot chocolate come winter, and better lemonade again next year), its more a satire about savvy business practices (killing off your competitors / stabbing everyone on the line in front of you in the back until suddenly you are the front of the line) have usurped the fundamental idea of building a better widget then the next guy, and thereby selling more widgets, making more money, blah, blah, blah...

well, maybe I should have been more specific with my comment, thought it was intended to be humorous / ironic, etc., generally the assumption would be that if a company has been making great products for a couple of decades, odds are that they will continue to do so for at least the near future, and by virtue of having good products the company should do well (if Bobby’s lemonade stand made great lemonade this year, because, say it has a better recipe then Timmy’s, well, maybe Bobby will have better hot chocolate come winter, and better lemonade again next year), its more a satire about savvy business practices (killing off your competitors / stabbing everyone on the line in front of you in the back until suddenly you are the front of the line) have usurped the fundamental idea of building a better widget then the next guy, and thereby selling more widgets, making more money, blah, blah, blah...

approach. I find it interesting that someone would find it novel that Apple may inspire investors because of the products they sell. I mean, c'mon, that's EXACTLY what Peter Lynch did with the Magellan fund, the most successful mutual fund of all time; that's EXACTLY what Warren Buffett did with Berkshire Hathaway - they bought shares in companies that produced a product or service that they used and understood well. Has this country morphed so much into a gang of ADD-addled, ticker-watching Day Traders that it is considered quaint to invest in a company because it makes great products?