Apple Inc. (AAPL) Product Releases: Bulls on the Loose?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw its stock at an all-time high of $705 per share in mid-September, just before the launch of the iPhone 5, and the stock has lost about 13 percent of its value in five weeks since, despite that new device release, plus the most recent unveiling of the new iPad Mini and talk about a new iPad 4. The downward movement has been fascinating, but is it consistent with past trends regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock following product announcements?

Well, according to one analyst, not only is this an anomaly, but the overall rally in the stock price of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) actually moves in the opposite direction of the stock’s price/earnings ratio. This article discusses the relationship between the stock and the company’s announcements of new products, dating back to the unveiling of the first iPhone in 2007. In a quick summary, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock has risen in value by more than 600 percent since the first iPhone, while the stock’s P/E ratio has actually dropped by 53 percent.

But another issue might be the difference in the increases of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock when a new iPhone is releases compared to a new iPad device. In the 30 days following a new product announcement, the tablet computers have brought about a smaller spike in stock price compared to iPhones, by a factor of three to four. And with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) being on a pretty steady decline in the month since the release of the iPhone 5, the history of less modest stock movement in the wake of a tablet product release may be contributing to some fears about the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) falling further instead of recovering.

Add to that the results of a recent survey that says about half of current iPad users are angry at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) for announcing its newest iPad so soon – just about nine months sine the iPad 3 – and there may be reason to believe hat sales might lag a bit in the short term and my not be as robust as some analysts believed earlier. Is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) losing its marketing and innovation touch? Or is this just a simple anomaly that may have more to do with supply-chain and quality-control issues that can be fixed in the future? How will investors like billionaire fund manager David Tepper of Appaloosa Management LP react to this? How will the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) earnings report look after it is released later this afternoon?