When Steve Jobs went on his third and final medical leave at the beginning of 2011, Strategic News Service publisher Mark Anderson advised his subscribers to get ready to sell their Apple stock.
Recently, Mark took his own advice and sold 75% of his Apple holdings. He explains why on this month's edition of The Digital Future.
First of all, Mark doesn't claim to be a market timer. Apple has recently been trading in the $570 - $590 range after hitting its all time high of $644 per share in April. This high plateau seemed like a good place to sell, although Mark acknowledges the stock may very well go higher in the next year or two.
Apple is healthy now, but Mark is concerned about the long term. He's seen Apple with Steve Jobs at the helm, and without. History shows Apple has always been more successful when Jobs was in charge.
When Jobs left Apple in the 1980s, Mark says, "with the creative genius gone, the company turned to an endless series of line extensions, slicing and dicing segments so that even the company salespeople couldn't tell you why you should buy a certain model."
Mark is watching new Apple CEO Tim Cook, and sees some warning signs:
- A new iPad was launched without a new name.
- The highly anticipated successor to the iPhone 4 was the iPhone 4s. Why not the iPhone 5?
- The company launched a new Apple TV product with virtually no fanfare.
- Siri, the voice activated personal assistant on the iPhone, isn't very smart (however, it's still in beta).
Can Apple compensate for the loss of Steve Jobs?
Mark is doubtful, saying, "Apple is known for creating insanely great products. How do you compensate for not doing that anymore?"
As time goes on, Mark fears Apple will return to the kind of company it became when Jobs left in the 1980s. And that's why he's selling his stock.
