Tech

Despite disappointing earnings, Apple has several things investors should feel good about

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, attends the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 6, 2016 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Don't let the markets' glum response to Apple's second quarter earnings report fool you — there are a number of reasons Apple investors should be upbeat, according to both CEO Tim Cook and analysts.

It's services growth — not just iPhone sales

Long term investors focus on the bets Apple's making in anticipation of a future where smartphones are replaced by augumented and virtual reality. Think of this as the great computing shift to PCs in the 1980s, then to the laptop in the 1990s and then the smartphone in the 2000s. It's also making bets in original content with shows like "Planet of the Apps" just as CFO Luca Maestri suggested in the December quarter.

"When we combine Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats headphones, our revenue from wearable products in the last four quarters was the size of a Fortune 500 company," said CEO Cook on this quarter's earnings call.

Apple has a huge cash hoard

With more cash than the market value of General Electric, Apple can effectively weather any storm that strikes its business. That cash can add to Apple's bottom-line by either providing a huge liquidity boost to the stock if Trump makes good on his one-time repatriation tax promise (Tom McClellan, The McClellan Market Report editor provides good technical color on this), or allowing the company to snap up players in AR, VR, content or cloud storage. Salesforce, for example, employs the same strategy and spent over $4 billion on acquisitions last year.

Longer-term, things look different

By watering down future expectations investors are likely to bid-up the stock in June after Apple's Wordwide Developers Conference — where more information on the next iPhone is expected.

Gene Munster of Loup Ventures said there are two emerging Apple investors: Those who will hang on as long as the company meets revenue targets, versus those who recognize that the future is in AR, VR, and cars, and are waiting to see how the company responds.