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AAPL Stock: 502.12 ( -0.09 )

AAPL trades over $100; Jobs not essential?

updated 04:10 pm EST, Mon February 9, 2009

Fears on Jobs' role fading


Apple has broken through the $100-per-share barrier, as analysts appear to be reconsidering the importance of CEO Steve Jobs in Apple's future. FTN Equity Capital Markets analyst Bill Fearnley, Jr. has upgraded Apple's stock rating from Neutral to Buy with a target of $140, on the notion that Jobs might not be as crucial to the company’s future as some people suggest. Says Fearnley, "We have re-evaluated our thesis and now believe any potential product disruptions from the CEO’s leave will be smaller than we previously thought. We also believe investors are more prepared for the potential for a change in the role of the CEO."

Apple stock traded as high as $103 on Monday, but by the closing of the NYSE had slipped to $102.75. Trading began during the day with a slight dip, but then jumped 3 percent to hover at various levels between $102 and $103.

Over the past year, concerns over Jobs' health have triggered disruptions in the company's stock price, with analysts at times expressing serious worry at the thought of Jobs leaving Apple. In recent days analysts become more comfortable with the idea of Tim Cook running the company, at least for the next six months.


by MacNN Staff

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 Investor, Steve Jobs, Apple

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Comments

  1. Bobfozz

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2008

    +5
    02/09, 04:46pm | report spam | Reply |

    Anal-ists are slow

    They get paid more than most of us and their track record of being right on anything concerning Apple (and probably anyone else) is abysmal.
    Cook is a good man, so is Jobs.

  1. jpellino

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 1999

    +4
    02/09, 05:07pm | report spam | Reply |

    Like Warren Buffett...

    ... Steve Jobs should not be essential. Any decent CEO builds a business solid enough so that the people who know it can run it.

    Comment buried. Show
  1. Guest

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 1999

    -10
    02/09, 05:07pm | report spam | (1 reply) Reply |

    Duh! nt

  1. elroth

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2006

    +5
    02/09, 07:27pm | report spam | Reply |

    not so fast

    I have confidence that Cook, Schiller, Ive, etc. are very competent to run Apple, and I have no doubt it will stay a very solid company.

    However, you can't short change the impact Jobs has on the creative process at Apple. Jobs makes the engineers go over things again and again to get the absolute best design. Another CEO may have made trade-offs in iPod, iPhone, iMac, MacBook designs to where they wouldn't be quite as good, or as small, etc. (but may have been released quicker). Jobs inspires people to do better, which is a good quality for a CEO (even if it steps on peoples' toes). Who's to say how the spirit at Apple might change 5 years (or 10 years) after Jobs leaves?

    That being said, Jobs' take on iMovie, the death of DVDs, and the unimportance of Firewire are wrong moves (according to me).

  1. bigpoppa206

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2003

    +1
    02/09, 08:55pm | report spam | Reply |

    As much as I've drunk

    from the Steve Jobs koolaid, I would hope that Apple survives if something were to happen to him. I believe in the company and I believe in their ability to bring cutting edge technology to the public.

  1. Guest

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 1999

    +4
    02/10, 08:32am | report spam | Reply |

    Speculation

    What is ABSOLUTELY insane is the speculation of all these so called "Analysts"! The fact is that this economy is the direct results of people speculating that the housing market was going to keep booming forever, and the gas prices that rose to unimaginable rates to the highest prices ever in this country!

    The same holds true with Apple. Oh, Steve Jobs has health problems....stock prices drop sharply! It's Bulls#$t! Yes, he has an amazing impact on the company and culture, but when analysts can cause prices to rise and fall based on their intuition and "gut" feelings, there is something wrong.

    By the way, I am a strong supporter of Apple, and want nothing more than for the company to flourish, I'm just pissed off with all the professional psychics....umm I mean "Analysts".

  1. climacs

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2001

    +1
    02/10, 02:30pm | report spam | Reply |

    Jobs != Apple

    I could have told these boneheads many months ago that Apple would survive and thrive just fine without Jobs.

    I also could have and did predict that if Jobs fell ill or were otherwise no longer in charge, there would be a (misguided) panic. ZOMG APPLE IS DOOOOOOOOMED!

    get a grip!

  1. MeandmyMac

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2008

    -1
    02/10, 03:32pm | report spam | (1 reply) Reply |

    AAPL trades over $100...

    Until the next day when the Obama's pork filled spending bill disguised as a so called "stimulus/reinvestment/recovery" whatever legislation passes the Senate and then AAPL tanks close to $5.00 per share and AAPL trades UNDER $100.00 and the DOW IS TANKING DOWN over $375.00 and is below the 8000 mark!

    Apple may survive without Jobs, but I doubt Apple will survive with Obama and the democrats. It was bad enough when Bush demanded and got $750 million dollars for the banking/financial sector because we were told chicken little like that the sky is falling, the sky is falling... Now we have Obama's 1 Tillion dollar pork spending stimullus bill catastrophe, another banking/financial bill, the regular budget bill, various appropriation bills, etc.

    Good luck to us all... To pay off this debt, it'll be years before one can upgrade their Mac or iPhone...

  1. iphonerulez

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2008

    +2
    02/10, 08:29pm | report spam | Reply |

    Back below $100...

    It's suddenly again decided Apple can't do without Jobs. A few dollars fluctuation up or down in a day doesn't indicate anything in particular.

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