+Follow
Sloth
No personal profile
0
Follow
1
Followers
0
Topic
0
Badge
Posts
Hot
Sloth
2021-04-20
Interesting
Apple stock update: The key numbers you need to look at now
Sloth
2021-04-20
Interesting
Wall Street banks brace for digital dollars as the next big disruptive force
Go to Tiger App to see more news
{"i18n":{"language":"en_US"},"userPageInfo":{"id":"3581982848427752","uuid":"3581982848427752","gmtCreate":1618888845254,"gmtModify":1618888845254,"name":"Sloth","pinyin":"sloth","introduction":"","introductionEn":null,"signature":"","avatar":"https://static.laohu8.com/default-avatar.jpg","hat":null,"hatId":null,"hatName":null,"vip":1,"status":2,"fanSize":1,"headSize":0,"tweetSize":2,"questionSize":0,"limitLevel":999,"accountStatus":2,"level":{"id":0,"name":"","nameTw":"","represent":"","factor":"","iconColor":"","bgColor":""},"themeCounts":0,"badgeCounts":0,"badges":[],"moderator":false,"superModerator":false,"manageSymbols":null,"badgeLevel":null,"boolIsFan":false,"boolIsHead":false,"favoriteSize":0,"symbols":null,"coverImage":null,"realNameVerified":"success","userBadges":[],"userBadgeCount":0,"currentWearingBadge":null,"individualDisplayBadges":null,"crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"location":null,"starInvestorFollowerNum":0,"starInvestorFlag":false,"starInvestorOrderShareNum":0,"subscribeStarInvestorNum":0,"ror":null,"winRationPercentage":null,"showRor":false,"investmentPhilosophy":null,"starInvestorSubscribeFlag":false},"baikeInfo":{},"tab":"post","tweets":[{"id":371086929,"gmtCreate":1618892556361,"gmtModify":1704716459687,"author":{"id":"3581982848427752","authorId":"3581982848427752","name":"Sloth","avatar":"https://static.laohu8.com/default-avatar.jpg","crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3581982848427752","authorIdStr":"3581982848427752"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Interesting","listText":"Interesting","text":"Interesting","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/371086929","repostId":"2128903808","repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"2128903808","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"Dow Jones publishes the world’s most trusted business news and financial information in a variety of media.","home_visible":0,"media_name":"Dow Jones","id":"106","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99"},"pubTimestamp":1618877880,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2128903808?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2021-04-20 08:18","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Apple stock update: The key numbers you need to look at now","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2128903808","media":"Dow Jones","summary":"These are the key metrics and stock valuation of the world's largest company.Apple Inc. kicks off a ","content":"<p>These are the key metrics and stock valuation of the world's largest company.</p><p>Apple Inc. kicks off a new snapshot series for the most-searched-for companies on MarketWatch.</p><p>The quarterly review will show comparisons of key metrics to watch and companies' most important issues to help investors makes decisions about whether to own shares.</p><p>The updates will include comparisons of results to competitors. Keep in mind that no two companies are alike -- even rivals don't compete in every space. Any investor needs to do their own research to make informed long-term decisions.</p><p><b>Where Apple fits in</b></p><p>As the largest company in the world, when measured by market capitalization, Apple <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AAPL\">$(AAPL)$</a> is contrasted with its largest \"big tech\" rivals -- the company remains mostly a hardware maker, while others among the largest tech players are growing sales more quickly and have businesses that center more on intellectual capital and services. But Apple's Services category -- including cloud storage and backup, digital content and payment services -- is growing rapidly and is its second-lagest reported business category.</p><p><b>Key metrics</b></p><p>Apple's fiscal year ends on the last Saturday in September. So its fiscal first quarter ended on Dec. 26. Here are some of the most important numbers that professional investors keep an eye on for the company and its rivals.</p><p><b>Sales growth</b></p><p>The company reports its sales by product/service line and also by geography. With its hardware focus, Apple's business is highly seasonal, so sales in its December quarter made up 38% of sales over the past four reported quarters.</p><p>Here are sales comparisons by product/service category:</p><p>And by geographical segment:</p><p>Apple's greatest sales growth was in China. This segment's sales made up 19.1% of the total during the December quarter, up from 14.8% a year earlier.</p><p><b>Pricing power and profitability</b></p><p>Here are year-over-year comparisons of gross margins and operating margins for Apple and five other large tech-oriented companies. Each company has a unique mix of business lines. This means a direct comparison isn't meaningful. Apple and Nvidia Corp. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/NVDA\">$(NVDA)$</a> are mainly hardware companies. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/FB\">Facebook</a> Inc. (FB) is a service company. Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/GOOGL\">$(GOOGL)$</a>(GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AMZN\">$(AMZN)$</a> have all been successful in building large, international corporate cloud-services business -- but all three derive more revenue from other lines.</p><p>Here's a comparison of sales growth figures, gross margins and operating margins for all six companies for their most recent reported quarters and year-earlier quarters.</p><p>A company's gross margin is its sales, less the cost of goods sold, divided by sales. It is a measure of pricing power. An expanding gross margin with growing sales is a good sign. If the gross margin is contracting, it could mean a company is being forced to increase use of discounting to stave off competition. Comparing only two periods may not be especially meaningful, but it is important to understand if there is a trend.</p><p>Apple's holiday-quarter gross margin expanded considerably year-over-year.</p><p>A company's operating margin is its earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation divided by net sales. It can be considered \"return on sales.\"</p><p>All the listed companies expanded their quarterly operating margins except for Amazon.</p><p><b>Free cash flow</b></p><p>With many companies' businesses tied to intellectual property and services, some professional investors believe a focus on cash-flow generation can be more important in the modern economy than traditional measures of value, such as price-to-book or even price-to-earnings ratios. A company's free cash flow <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/FCF\">$(FCF)$</a> yield can be calculated by dividing its trailing 12 months' FCF by the current share price.</p><p>For Apple and the five other large tech companies being compared here, FCF can fluctuate greatly from quarter to quarter.</p><p>Here's a comparison of the six companies' changes in free cash flow per share for the past 12 reported months from the year-earlier 12-month period, along with trailing 12-month free cash flow yields, based on closing share prices on April 16:</p><p>So Apple has come in second, after Alphabet, for FCF growth over the past 12 months. Apple has the highest FCF yield among this group.</p><p><b>Stock valuation and performance</b></p><p>Here are price-to-earnings (P/E) valuations for the six stocks, based on consensus earnings estimates for the next 12 months among analysts polled by FactSet, along with total return figures through April 16:</p><p>Apple has the second-lowest forward P/E ratio. It has been the best performer among the group for three years and ranks third for five years.</p><p><b>Wall Street's opinion</b></p><p>Here's a summary of opinion among Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet:</p><p>The analysts working for brokerage companies love these stocks. But industry price targets are for only <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AONE\">one</a> year, even though that is a relatively short period for a long-term investor. So the price targets aren't aggressive, despite the positive sentiment. Apple has the lowest percentage of \"buy\" or equivalent ratings but the second-highest implied 12-month upside.</p>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Apple stock update: The key numbers you need to look at now</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nApple stock update: The key numbers you need to look at now\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<div class=\"head\" \">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">Dow Jones </p>\n<p class=\"h-time\">2021-04-20 08:18</p>\n</div>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<p>These are the key metrics and stock valuation of the world's largest company.</p><p>Apple Inc. kicks off a new snapshot series for the most-searched-for companies on MarketWatch.</p><p>The quarterly review will show comparisons of key metrics to watch and companies' most important issues to help investors makes decisions about whether to own shares.</p><p>The updates will include comparisons of results to competitors. Keep in mind that no two companies are alike -- even rivals don't compete in every space. Any investor needs to do their own research to make informed long-term decisions.</p><p><b>Where Apple fits in</b></p><p>As the largest company in the world, when measured by market capitalization, Apple <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AAPL\">$(AAPL)$</a> is contrasted with its largest \"big tech\" rivals -- the company remains mostly a hardware maker, while others among the largest tech players are growing sales more quickly and have businesses that center more on intellectual capital and services. But Apple's Services category -- including cloud storage and backup, digital content and payment services -- is growing rapidly and is its second-lagest reported business category.</p><p><b>Key metrics</b></p><p>Apple's fiscal year ends on the last Saturday in September. So its fiscal first quarter ended on Dec. 26. Here are some of the most important numbers that professional investors keep an eye on for the company and its rivals.</p><p><b>Sales growth</b></p><p>The company reports its sales by product/service line and also by geography. With its hardware focus, Apple's business is highly seasonal, so sales in its December quarter made up 38% of sales over the past four reported quarters.</p><p>Here are sales comparisons by product/service category:</p><p>And by geographical segment:</p><p>Apple's greatest sales growth was in China. This segment's sales made up 19.1% of the total during the December quarter, up from 14.8% a year earlier.</p><p><b>Pricing power and profitability</b></p><p>Here are year-over-year comparisons of gross margins and operating margins for Apple and five other large tech-oriented companies. Each company has a unique mix of business lines. This means a direct comparison isn't meaningful. Apple and Nvidia Corp. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/NVDA\">$(NVDA)$</a> are mainly hardware companies. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/FB\">Facebook</a> Inc. (FB) is a service company. Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/GOOGL\">$(GOOGL)$</a>(GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AMZN\">$(AMZN)$</a> have all been successful in building large, international corporate cloud-services business -- but all three derive more revenue from other lines.</p><p>Here's a comparison of sales growth figures, gross margins and operating margins for all six companies for their most recent reported quarters and year-earlier quarters.</p><p>A company's gross margin is its sales, less the cost of goods sold, divided by sales. It is a measure of pricing power. An expanding gross margin with growing sales is a good sign. If the gross margin is contracting, it could mean a company is being forced to increase use of discounting to stave off competition. Comparing only two periods may not be especially meaningful, but it is important to understand if there is a trend.</p><p>Apple's holiday-quarter gross margin expanded considerably year-over-year.</p><p>A company's operating margin is its earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation divided by net sales. It can be considered \"return on sales.\"</p><p>All the listed companies expanded their quarterly operating margins except for Amazon.</p><p><b>Free cash flow</b></p><p>With many companies' businesses tied to intellectual property and services, some professional investors believe a focus on cash-flow generation can be more important in the modern economy than traditional measures of value, such as price-to-book or even price-to-earnings ratios. A company's free cash flow <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/FCF\">$(FCF)$</a> yield can be calculated by dividing its trailing 12 months' FCF by the current share price.</p><p>For Apple and the five other large tech companies being compared here, FCF can fluctuate greatly from quarter to quarter.</p><p>Here's a comparison of the six companies' changes in free cash flow per share for the past 12 reported months from the year-earlier 12-month period, along with trailing 12-month free cash flow yields, based on closing share prices on April 16:</p><p>So Apple has come in second, after Alphabet, for FCF growth over the past 12 months. Apple has the highest FCF yield among this group.</p><p><b>Stock valuation and performance</b></p><p>Here are price-to-earnings (P/E) valuations for the six stocks, based on consensus earnings estimates for the next 12 months among analysts polled by FactSet, along with total return figures through April 16:</p><p>Apple has the second-lowest forward P/E ratio. It has been the best performer among the group for three years and ranks third for five years.</p><p><b>Wall Street's opinion</b></p><p>Here's a summary of opinion among Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet:</p><p>The analysts working for brokerage companies love these stocks. But industry price targets are for only <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AONE\">one</a> year, even though that is a relatively short period for a long-term investor. So the price targets aren't aggressive, despite the positive sentiment. Apple has the lowest percentage of \"buy\" or equivalent ratings but the second-highest implied 12-month upside.</p>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"NVDA":"英伟达","09086":"华夏纳指-U","GOOG":"谷歌","03086":"华夏纳指","AMZN":"亚马逊","AAPL":"苹果","GOOGL":"谷歌A"},"is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"2128903808","content_text":"These are the key metrics and stock valuation of the world's largest company.Apple Inc. kicks off a new snapshot series for the most-searched-for companies on MarketWatch.The quarterly review will show comparisons of key metrics to watch and companies' most important issues to help investors makes decisions about whether to own shares.The updates will include comparisons of results to competitors. Keep in mind that no two companies are alike -- even rivals don't compete in every space. Any investor needs to do their own research to make informed long-term decisions.Where Apple fits inAs the largest company in the world, when measured by market capitalization, Apple $(AAPL)$ is contrasted with its largest \"big tech\" rivals -- the company remains mostly a hardware maker, while others among the largest tech players are growing sales more quickly and have businesses that center more on intellectual capital and services. But Apple's Services category -- including cloud storage and backup, digital content and payment services -- is growing rapidly and is its second-lagest reported business category.Key metricsApple's fiscal year ends on the last Saturday in September. So its fiscal first quarter ended on Dec. 26. Here are some of the most important numbers that professional investors keep an eye on for the company and its rivals.Sales growthThe company reports its sales by product/service line and also by geography. With its hardware focus, Apple's business is highly seasonal, so sales in its December quarter made up 38% of sales over the past four reported quarters.Here are sales comparisons by product/service category:And by geographical segment:Apple's greatest sales growth was in China. This segment's sales made up 19.1% of the total during the December quarter, up from 14.8% a year earlier.Pricing power and profitabilityHere are year-over-year comparisons of gross margins and operating margins for Apple and five other large tech-oriented companies. Each company has a unique mix of business lines. This means a direct comparison isn't meaningful. Apple and Nvidia Corp. $(NVDA)$ are mainly hardware companies. Facebook Inc. (FB) is a service company. Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. $(GOOGL)$(GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc. $(AMZN)$ have all been successful in building large, international corporate cloud-services business -- but all three derive more revenue from other lines.Here's a comparison of sales growth figures, gross margins and operating margins for all six companies for their most recent reported quarters and year-earlier quarters.A company's gross margin is its sales, less the cost of goods sold, divided by sales. It is a measure of pricing power. An expanding gross margin with growing sales is a good sign. If the gross margin is contracting, it could mean a company is being forced to increase use of discounting to stave off competition. Comparing only two periods may not be especially meaningful, but it is important to understand if there is a trend.Apple's holiday-quarter gross margin expanded considerably year-over-year.A company's operating margin is its earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation divided by net sales. It can be considered \"return on sales.\"All the listed companies expanded their quarterly operating margins except for Amazon.Free cash flowWith many companies' businesses tied to intellectual property and services, some professional investors believe a focus on cash-flow generation can be more important in the modern economy than traditional measures of value, such as price-to-book or even price-to-earnings ratios. A company's free cash flow $(FCF)$ yield can be calculated by dividing its trailing 12 months' FCF by the current share price.For Apple and the five other large tech companies being compared here, FCF can fluctuate greatly from quarter to quarter.Here's a comparison of the six companies' changes in free cash flow per share for the past 12 reported months from the year-earlier 12-month period, along with trailing 12-month free cash flow yields, based on closing share prices on April 16:So Apple has come in second, after Alphabet, for FCF growth over the past 12 months. Apple has the highest FCF yield among this group.Stock valuation and performanceHere are price-to-earnings (P/E) valuations for the six stocks, based on consensus earnings estimates for the next 12 months among analysts polled by FactSet, along with total return figures through April 16:Apple has the second-lowest forward P/E ratio. It has been the best performer among the group for three years and ranks third for five years.Wall Street's opinionHere's a summary of opinion among Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet:The analysts working for brokerage companies love these stocks. But industry price targets are for only one year, even though that is a relatively short period for a long-term investor. So the price targets aren't aggressive, despite the positive sentiment. Apple has the lowest percentage of \"buy\" or equivalent ratings but the second-highest implied 12-month upside.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":193,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":371088962,"gmtCreate":1618892512556,"gmtModify":1704716458554,"author":{"id":"3581982848427752","authorId":"3581982848427752","name":"Sloth","avatar":"https://static.laohu8.com/default-avatar.jpg","crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3581982848427752","authorIdStr":"3581982848427752"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Interesting","listText":"Interesting","text":"Interesting","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/371088962","repostId":"1192117283","repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"1192117283","pubTimestamp":1618877995,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1192117283?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2021-04-20 08:19","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Wall Street banks brace for digital dollars as the next big disruptive force","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1192117283","media":"cnbc","summary":"KEY POINTS\n\nWall Street banks view central bank digital currencies as the next big financial disrupt","content":"<div>\n<p>KEY POINTS\n\nWall Street banks view central bank digital currencies as the next big financial disruptor.\nCountries as large as China and as small as the Bahamas have instituted these digital currencies...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/central-bank-digital-currency-is-the-next-major-financial-disruptor.html\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n","source":"cnbc_highlight","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Wall Street banks brace for digital dollars as the next big disruptive force</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nWall Street banks brace for digital dollars as the next big disruptive force\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2021-04-20 08:19 GMT+8 <a href=https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/central-bank-digital-currency-is-the-next-major-financial-disruptor.html><strong>cnbc</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>KEY POINTS\n\nWall Street banks view central bank digital currencies as the next big financial disruptor.\nCountries as large as China and as small as the Bahamas have instituted these digital currencies...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/central-bank-digital-currency-is-the-next-major-financial-disruptor.html\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{".DJI":"道琼斯",".SPX":"S&P 500 Index","SPY":"标普500ETF",".IXIC":"NASDAQ Composite"},"source_url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/central-bank-digital-currency-is-the-next-major-financial-disruptor.html","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/72bb72e1b84c09fca865c6dcb1bbcd16","article_id":"1192117283","content_text":"KEY POINTS\n\nWall Street banks view central bank digital currencies as the next big financial disruptor.\nCountries as large as China and as small as the Bahamas have instituted these digital currencies.\nIn the U.S., the Federal Reserve is taking a cautious approach though it has launched a project with MIT.\n\nWall Street is warming up to the idea that the next big disruptive force on the horizon is central bank digital currencies, even though the Federal Reserve likely remains a few years away from developing its own.\nLed by countries as large as China and as small as the Bahamas, digital money is drawing stronger interest as the future of an increasingly cashless society.\nA digital dollar would resemble cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or ethereum in some limited respects, but differ in important ways.\nRather than be a tradable asset withwildly fluctuating prices and limited use,the central bank digital currency would function more like dollars and have widespread acceptance. It also would be fully regulated and under a central authority.\nMyriad questions remain before an institution as large as the Fed will wade in. But the momentum is building around the world.\n\n The race towards Digital Money 2.0 is on.Citigroup\n\n“A major move to introduce central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could actually disrupt the financial system,” Chetan Ahya, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, said in a report for clients. “Efforts to introduce CBDCs are gaining momentum, with as many as 86% of the world’s central banks exploring digital currencies.”\nIndeed, a 2020 survey from the Bank for International Settlements indicated that nearly every central bank in the world at least did some work on these digital currencies. Some 60% are working on “proof of concept” testing, though just 14% have actually launched a pilot program or are in development.\nSeveral areas of worry\nAlong with the enthusiasm about a possible new horizon for the financial system has come concern over getting the implementation right.\nCentral bank digital currency advocates, conversely, cite multiple advantages. Paramount among those reasons is giving unbanked people access to the financial system.\nThere’s also a speed consideration. Transfer payments, such as those provided by governments to people duringthe Covid-19 crisis, would be made faster and easier if that money could be deposited directly into digital wallets.\n“New forms of digital money could provide a parallel boost to the vital lifelines that remittances provide to the poor and to developing economies,” Kristalina Georgieva, managing director at the International Monetary Fund, said in recent remarks at a joint meeting with the World Bank. “The biggest beneficiaries would be vulnerable people sending small value remittances: those most at risk from being left behind by the pandemic.”\nPotential losers from the digital currencies include some financial institutions, both in traditional banking and fintech, that could lose deposits due to people putting their money into central bank accounts.\nThere also are privacy concerns and worries over integration.\n‘Digital Money 2.0’\nAs the Fed and other central banks work through those logistical issues, Wall Street is growing in anticipation over what the future will hold.\n“The race towards Digital Money 2.0 is on,” Citigroup said in a report. “Some have framed it as a new Space Race or Digital Currency Cold War. In our view, it doesn’t have to be a zero sum game — there’s a lot of room for the overall digital pie to grow.”\nThere, however, has been at least the semblance of a race, andChina is perceived as taking the early lead.\nWith the launch of a digital yuan last year, some fear that the edge China has ultimately could undermine the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. Though China said that is not its objective, a Bank of America report notes that issuing digital dollars would let the U.S. currency “remain highly competitive … relative to other currencies.”\n“CBDCs offer the benefits of improving monetary transactions, without the adverse side effects of crypto currencies,” Bank of America economist Anna Zhou wrote.\nMultiple other nations have moved ahead on projects, after the Bahamas was first with its Sand Dollar.\nThe Fed is currently working on a joint project with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to evaluate the efficacy of a digital dollar, though there isn’t a specific timetable on when or if the U.S. central bank will move forward.\n“There are many subtle and difficult policy choices and design choices that you have to make,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said ina recent interviewwith the CBS program “60 Minutes.”\n“We’re doing all that work,” he said. “We have not made a decision to do this because, again, the question is will this benefit the people that we serve? And we need to answer that question well.”\nIn a working paper on the subject, Greg Baer, CEO of the Bank Policy Institute, an industry lobbying group, cautioned about a potential “diminishment” of the traditional banking system. He added that “the impact on economic growth could be significant – unless the central bank also assumed responsibility for lending or became a regular source of funding for banks.”\n“The path forward is currently uncertain, and design choices could drive very different outcomes,” Baer wrote. He noted the Fed’s caution and how that contrasts with the “more precipitate” action from the European Central Bank.\n‘Cash is going the way of the dodo’\nThe ECB is moving ahead with its “britcoin” project though it has said it will be simply a conduit for banks, which would act as the intermediaries for digital currency accounts.\n“This ‘britcoin’ would be tied to the value of the pound to eliminate holding it as an asset from to derive profit. There could be an economic impact in the form of wider investment into the UK tech sector and lower transaction costs for international businesses,” said Jeremy Thomson-Cook, chief economist at international business payments specialist Equals Money.\n“I think this legitimizes the belief that cash is going the way of the dodo and that the wider payments landscape will be entirely online within the next decade apart from incidentals or quixotic spending,” Thomson-Cook said.\nEven with the seemingly intractable move toward digital currencies backed by central banks, U.S. authorities seem determined to take their time.\nPowell also has said the Fed will not act without specific congressional authority and has said there are multiple concerns that need to be addressed.\n“While central banks’ CBDC initiatives are not intended to disrupt the banking system, they will likely have unintended disruptive consequences,” Morgan Stanley’s Ahya said. “The more widely digital currencies are accepted, the more opportunity for innovation and the greater the scope for disruption to the financial system.”","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":232,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0}],"hots":[{"id":371086929,"gmtCreate":1618892556361,"gmtModify":1704716459687,"author":{"id":"3581982848427752","authorId":"3581982848427752","name":"Sloth","avatar":"https://static.laohu8.com/default-avatar.jpg","crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3581982848427752","authorIdStr":"3581982848427752"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Interesting","listText":"Interesting","text":"Interesting","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/371086929","repostId":"2128903808","repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"2128903808","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"Dow Jones publishes the world’s most trusted business news and financial information in a variety of media.","home_visible":0,"media_name":"Dow Jones","id":"106","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99"},"pubTimestamp":1618877880,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2128903808?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2021-04-20 08:18","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Apple stock update: The key numbers you need to look at now","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2128903808","media":"Dow Jones","summary":"These are the key metrics and stock valuation of the world's largest company.Apple Inc. kicks off a ","content":"<p>These are the key metrics and stock valuation of the world's largest company.</p><p>Apple Inc. kicks off a new snapshot series for the most-searched-for companies on MarketWatch.</p><p>The quarterly review will show comparisons of key metrics to watch and companies' most important issues to help investors makes decisions about whether to own shares.</p><p>The updates will include comparisons of results to competitors. Keep in mind that no two companies are alike -- even rivals don't compete in every space. Any investor needs to do their own research to make informed long-term decisions.</p><p><b>Where Apple fits in</b></p><p>As the largest company in the world, when measured by market capitalization, Apple <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AAPL\">$(AAPL)$</a> is contrasted with its largest \"big tech\" rivals -- the company remains mostly a hardware maker, while others among the largest tech players are growing sales more quickly and have businesses that center more on intellectual capital and services. But Apple's Services category -- including cloud storage and backup, digital content and payment services -- is growing rapidly and is its second-lagest reported business category.</p><p><b>Key metrics</b></p><p>Apple's fiscal year ends on the last Saturday in September. So its fiscal first quarter ended on Dec. 26. Here are some of the most important numbers that professional investors keep an eye on for the company and its rivals.</p><p><b>Sales growth</b></p><p>The company reports its sales by product/service line and also by geography. With its hardware focus, Apple's business is highly seasonal, so sales in its December quarter made up 38% of sales over the past four reported quarters.</p><p>Here are sales comparisons by product/service category:</p><p>And by geographical segment:</p><p>Apple's greatest sales growth was in China. This segment's sales made up 19.1% of the total during the December quarter, up from 14.8% a year earlier.</p><p><b>Pricing power and profitability</b></p><p>Here are year-over-year comparisons of gross margins and operating margins for Apple and five other large tech-oriented companies. Each company has a unique mix of business lines. This means a direct comparison isn't meaningful. Apple and Nvidia Corp. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/NVDA\">$(NVDA)$</a> are mainly hardware companies. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/FB\">Facebook</a> Inc. (FB) is a service company. Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/GOOGL\">$(GOOGL)$</a>(GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AMZN\">$(AMZN)$</a> have all been successful in building large, international corporate cloud-services business -- but all three derive more revenue from other lines.</p><p>Here's a comparison of sales growth figures, gross margins and operating margins for all six companies for their most recent reported quarters and year-earlier quarters.</p><p>A company's gross margin is its sales, less the cost of goods sold, divided by sales. It is a measure of pricing power. An expanding gross margin with growing sales is a good sign. If the gross margin is contracting, it could mean a company is being forced to increase use of discounting to stave off competition. Comparing only two periods may not be especially meaningful, but it is important to understand if there is a trend.</p><p>Apple's holiday-quarter gross margin expanded considerably year-over-year.</p><p>A company's operating margin is its earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation divided by net sales. It can be considered \"return on sales.\"</p><p>All the listed companies expanded their quarterly operating margins except for Amazon.</p><p><b>Free cash flow</b></p><p>With many companies' businesses tied to intellectual property and services, some professional investors believe a focus on cash-flow generation can be more important in the modern economy than traditional measures of value, such as price-to-book or even price-to-earnings ratios. A company's free cash flow <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/FCF\">$(FCF)$</a> yield can be calculated by dividing its trailing 12 months' FCF by the current share price.</p><p>For Apple and the five other large tech companies being compared here, FCF can fluctuate greatly from quarter to quarter.</p><p>Here's a comparison of the six companies' changes in free cash flow per share for the past 12 reported months from the year-earlier 12-month period, along with trailing 12-month free cash flow yields, based on closing share prices on April 16:</p><p>So Apple has come in second, after Alphabet, for FCF growth over the past 12 months. Apple has the highest FCF yield among this group.</p><p><b>Stock valuation and performance</b></p><p>Here are price-to-earnings (P/E) valuations for the six stocks, based on consensus earnings estimates for the next 12 months among analysts polled by FactSet, along with total return figures through April 16:</p><p>Apple has the second-lowest forward P/E ratio. It has been the best performer among the group for three years and ranks third for five years.</p><p><b>Wall Street's opinion</b></p><p>Here's a summary of opinion among Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet:</p><p>The analysts working for brokerage companies love these stocks. But industry price targets are for only <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AONE\">one</a> year, even though that is a relatively short period for a long-term investor. So the price targets aren't aggressive, despite the positive sentiment. Apple has the lowest percentage of \"buy\" or equivalent ratings but the second-highest implied 12-month upside.</p>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Apple stock update: The key numbers you need to look at now</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nApple stock update: The key numbers you need to look at now\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<div class=\"head\" \">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">Dow Jones </p>\n<p class=\"h-time\">2021-04-20 08:18</p>\n</div>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<p>These are the key metrics and stock valuation of the world's largest company.</p><p>Apple Inc. kicks off a new snapshot series for the most-searched-for companies on MarketWatch.</p><p>The quarterly review will show comparisons of key metrics to watch and companies' most important issues to help investors makes decisions about whether to own shares.</p><p>The updates will include comparisons of results to competitors. Keep in mind that no two companies are alike -- even rivals don't compete in every space. Any investor needs to do their own research to make informed long-term decisions.</p><p><b>Where Apple fits in</b></p><p>As the largest company in the world, when measured by market capitalization, Apple <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AAPL\">$(AAPL)$</a> is contrasted with its largest \"big tech\" rivals -- the company remains mostly a hardware maker, while others among the largest tech players are growing sales more quickly and have businesses that center more on intellectual capital and services. But Apple's Services category -- including cloud storage and backup, digital content and payment services -- is growing rapidly and is its second-lagest reported business category.</p><p><b>Key metrics</b></p><p>Apple's fiscal year ends on the last Saturday in September. So its fiscal first quarter ended on Dec. 26. Here are some of the most important numbers that professional investors keep an eye on for the company and its rivals.</p><p><b>Sales growth</b></p><p>The company reports its sales by product/service line and also by geography. With its hardware focus, Apple's business is highly seasonal, so sales in its December quarter made up 38% of sales over the past four reported quarters.</p><p>Here are sales comparisons by product/service category:</p><p>And by geographical segment:</p><p>Apple's greatest sales growth was in China. This segment's sales made up 19.1% of the total during the December quarter, up from 14.8% a year earlier.</p><p><b>Pricing power and profitability</b></p><p>Here are year-over-year comparisons of gross margins and operating margins for Apple and five other large tech-oriented companies. Each company has a unique mix of business lines. This means a direct comparison isn't meaningful. Apple and Nvidia Corp. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/NVDA\">$(NVDA)$</a> are mainly hardware companies. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/FB\">Facebook</a> Inc. (FB) is a service company. Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/GOOGL\">$(GOOGL)$</a>(GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc. <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AMZN\">$(AMZN)$</a> have all been successful in building large, international corporate cloud-services business -- but all three derive more revenue from other lines.</p><p>Here's a comparison of sales growth figures, gross margins and operating margins for all six companies for their most recent reported quarters and year-earlier quarters.</p><p>A company's gross margin is its sales, less the cost of goods sold, divided by sales. It is a measure of pricing power. An expanding gross margin with growing sales is a good sign. If the gross margin is contracting, it could mean a company is being forced to increase use of discounting to stave off competition. Comparing only two periods may not be especially meaningful, but it is important to understand if there is a trend.</p><p>Apple's holiday-quarter gross margin expanded considerably year-over-year.</p><p>A company's operating margin is its earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation divided by net sales. It can be considered \"return on sales.\"</p><p>All the listed companies expanded their quarterly operating margins except for Amazon.</p><p><b>Free cash flow</b></p><p>With many companies' businesses tied to intellectual property and services, some professional investors believe a focus on cash-flow generation can be more important in the modern economy than traditional measures of value, such as price-to-book or even price-to-earnings ratios. A company's free cash flow <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/FCF\">$(FCF)$</a> yield can be calculated by dividing its trailing 12 months' FCF by the current share price.</p><p>For Apple and the five other large tech companies being compared here, FCF can fluctuate greatly from quarter to quarter.</p><p>Here's a comparison of the six companies' changes in free cash flow per share for the past 12 reported months from the year-earlier 12-month period, along with trailing 12-month free cash flow yields, based on closing share prices on April 16:</p><p>So Apple has come in second, after Alphabet, for FCF growth over the past 12 months. Apple has the highest FCF yield among this group.</p><p><b>Stock valuation and performance</b></p><p>Here are price-to-earnings (P/E) valuations for the six stocks, based on consensus earnings estimates for the next 12 months among analysts polled by FactSet, along with total return figures through April 16:</p><p>Apple has the second-lowest forward P/E ratio. It has been the best performer among the group for three years and ranks third for five years.</p><p><b>Wall Street's opinion</b></p><p>Here's a summary of opinion among Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet:</p><p>The analysts working for brokerage companies love these stocks. But industry price targets are for only <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/AONE\">one</a> year, even though that is a relatively short period for a long-term investor. So the price targets aren't aggressive, despite the positive sentiment. Apple has the lowest percentage of \"buy\" or equivalent ratings but the second-highest implied 12-month upside.</p>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"NVDA":"英伟达","09086":"华夏纳指-U","GOOG":"谷歌","03086":"华夏纳指","AMZN":"亚马逊","AAPL":"苹果","GOOGL":"谷歌A"},"is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"2128903808","content_text":"These are the key metrics and stock valuation of the world's largest company.Apple Inc. kicks off a new snapshot series for the most-searched-for companies on MarketWatch.The quarterly review will show comparisons of key metrics to watch and companies' most important issues to help investors makes decisions about whether to own shares.The updates will include comparisons of results to competitors. Keep in mind that no two companies are alike -- even rivals don't compete in every space. Any investor needs to do their own research to make informed long-term decisions.Where Apple fits inAs the largest company in the world, when measured by market capitalization, Apple $(AAPL)$ is contrasted with its largest \"big tech\" rivals -- the company remains mostly a hardware maker, while others among the largest tech players are growing sales more quickly and have businesses that center more on intellectual capital and services. But Apple's Services category -- including cloud storage and backup, digital content and payment services -- is growing rapidly and is its second-lagest reported business category.Key metricsApple's fiscal year ends on the last Saturday in September. So its fiscal first quarter ended on Dec. 26. Here are some of the most important numbers that professional investors keep an eye on for the company and its rivals.Sales growthThe company reports its sales by product/service line and also by geography. With its hardware focus, Apple's business is highly seasonal, so sales in its December quarter made up 38% of sales over the past four reported quarters.Here are sales comparisons by product/service category:And by geographical segment:Apple's greatest sales growth was in China. This segment's sales made up 19.1% of the total during the December quarter, up from 14.8% a year earlier.Pricing power and profitabilityHere are year-over-year comparisons of gross margins and operating margins for Apple and five other large tech-oriented companies. Each company has a unique mix of business lines. This means a direct comparison isn't meaningful. Apple and Nvidia Corp. $(NVDA)$ are mainly hardware companies. Facebook Inc. (FB) is a service company. Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. $(GOOGL)$(GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc. $(AMZN)$ have all been successful in building large, international corporate cloud-services business -- but all three derive more revenue from other lines.Here's a comparison of sales growth figures, gross margins and operating margins for all six companies for their most recent reported quarters and year-earlier quarters.A company's gross margin is its sales, less the cost of goods sold, divided by sales. It is a measure of pricing power. An expanding gross margin with growing sales is a good sign. If the gross margin is contracting, it could mean a company is being forced to increase use of discounting to stave off competition. Comparing only two periods may not be especially meaningful, but it is important to understand if there is a trend.Apple's holiday-quarter gross margin expanded considerably year-over-year.A company's operating margin is its earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation divided by net sales. It can be considered \"return on sales.\"All the listed companies expanded their quarterly operating margins except for Amazon.Free cash flowWith many companies' businesses tied to intellectual property and services, some professional investors believe a focus on cash-flow generation can be more important in the modern economy than traditional measures of value, such as price-to-book or even price-to-earnings ratios. A company's free cash flow $(FCF)$ yield can be calculated by dividing its trailing 12 months' FCF by the current share price.For Apple and the five other large tech companies being compared here, FCF can fluctuate greatly from quarter to quarter.Here's a comparison of the six companies' changes in free cash flow per share for the past 12 reported months from the year-earlier 12-month period, along with trailing 12-month free cash flow yields, based on closing share prices on April 16:So Apple has come in second, after Alphabet, for FCF growth over the past 12 months. Apple has the highest FCF yield among this group.Stock valuation and performanceHere are price-to-earnings (P/E) valuations for the six stocks, based on consensus earnings estimates for the next 12 months among analysts polled by FactSet, along with total return figures through April 16:Apple has the second-lowest forward P/E ratio. It has been the best performer among the group for three years and ranks third for five years.Wall Street's opinionHere's a summary of opinion among Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet:The analysts working for brokerage companies love these stocks. But industry price targets are for only one year, even though that is a relatively short period for a long-term investor. So the price targets aren't aggressive, despite the positive sentiment. Apple has the lowest percentage of \"buy\" or equivalent ratings but the second-highest implied 12-month upside.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":193,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":371088962,"gmtCreate":1618892512556,"gmtModify":1704716458554,"author":{"id":"3581982848427752","authorId":"3581982848427752","name":"Sloth","avatar":"https://static.laohu8.com/default-avatar.jpg","crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3581982848427752","authorIdStr":"3581982848427752"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Interesting","listText":"Interesting","text":"Interesting","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/371088962","repostId":"1192117283","repostType":4,"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":232,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0}],"lives":[]}
