Thoughts
2011:
> Today’s stock market actually hates technology, as shown by all-time low price/earnings ratios for major public technology companies. Apple, for example, has a P/E ratio of around 15.2—about the same as the broader stock market, despite Apple’s immense profitability and dominant market position (Apple in the last couple weeks became the biggest company in America, judged by market capitalization, surpassing Exxon Mobil). And, perhaps most telling, you can’t have a bubble when people are constantly screaming “Bubble!”
It's crazy to look back at Apple with a P/E ratio of 15. But it also sounds crazy to look at the biggest company in America and call them undervalued.
Evaluating things is weird, because everyone else has an opinion but you kind of have to listen to their opinions. This guy is arguing Apple is undervalued. He's not unbiased and drawing that conclusion, he's pulling in evidence that supports his argument.
And so I was following Apple news throughout this time and the narrative consistently (through probably 2018 I'd say) was that Wall Street was being unfair to Apple and expecting more from them than other companies. It's tempting to apply a higher standard to better performing stocks but of course that's not correct. In this case, it was correct to listen to the people who were following Apple and understood Apple.
At the same time, crypto people will tell you that crypto is undervalued and the Gamestop people will tell you that Gamestop is undervalued.
I guess one of the things that made Apple different was that it was already on top, it was already the most valuable company in America. And Bitcoin is within 10% of its all time high so it's not fair to criticize it.
But even with Bitcoin and Apple it's hard to look at it at its all time high and go 'well it will go up more, surely.'
But you look at Apple today and it's P/E ratio is 35 and the NASDAQ's is 40.