Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Further Gains Could Prompt a Reevaluation: Sam Peters

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has seen a good upside since last year when investors dumped Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock, making it reach levels below $60 (split adjusted). But a further rise in the stock from here will make people skeptical, even those who made a neat profit on riding the stock from those levels to the current levels of above $95. Sam Peters, Fund Manager, Clearbridge Value Trust fund was recently interviewed by Yahoo! Finance on his views about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and other stocks that he is bullish on.

Even though there were apprehensions last year that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s profit margins from iPad and iPhone would erode due to cheaper competition from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Android based devices. Those concerns were silenced when Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s profit margin refused to go down, which is something that is attributed to consumers’ willingness to pay more for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS software and vast app and media selections. According to Peters, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is still “sucking” incredible amounts of value from its iOS ecosystem.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Peters believes that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s current valuation is fair, but if the prices rise above $100, they will make the company “much less interesting.” He attributes the reason for that to the fact that Apple has grown too big, which makes it nearly impossible for the company to increase sales and revenues at a rates seen a few years ago. NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI), a company that will be making chips for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s new models, could be a big beneficiary of Apple’s upgrade cycle, according to Peters.

Peters also holds a stake and is bullish on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), because of the company’s growth in its commercial cloud business. The one ‘tech dinosaur’ on whose revival Peters is not willing to bet, is Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), because he feels it has a more difficult financial position due to its substantial pension obligations. The only regret that Peters has, is of selling Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) too soon, he bought Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) in at around $20 and sold it by over $40, while currently the stock trades at over $70.

Disclosure: None