Sunday, April 29, 2012

Apple's Huge Pile of Cash and a Mountain of Student Debt

It is difficult to find the right words to describe Apple's earnings announcement last week.  The largest (by market cap) and most profitable (by net income) company in the world managed to grow like a baby baboon drinking bovine growth hormone.

Year over years earnings growth was 91% higher, total revenue was up 59%.

That is just INCREDIBLE.  A company at that scale simply SHOULDN'T be able to grow that fast.  Frankly, the Market Monkey can't get his head around it.  In it's most recent quarter, Apple's market cap peer, Exxon Mobile (XOM) had earnings growth of 1.6%.

Really, Apple is growing like a teenager.  The world's biggest, smartest, and tallest teenager.

This chart was posted on Zero Hedge this week.  The scales are a little different with total US student loan debt at about $1 trillion and AAPL's cash hoard at around $109 B.  But it's a funny (ha ha) correlation.  Is $10 out of every student loan dollar going to pay for Apple products?


Chart: Bloomberg via Zero Hedge

Some back-of-the-credit-card-offer math:

Tuition at a mid-tier public university: $5000 / semester
x 2 Semesters = $10,000 / year
x 4 Years = $40,000
50% Borrowed: $20,000
--------------------------------
Total Student Debt Expense = $20,000


MacBook Pro: $1500
iPhone: $200
iPod Nano: $129
iPad: $400
----------------------------
Total Cash to Apple: $2,229

Cash to Apple : Student Debt Expense = 11%

Apple's Total Cash Hoard : Total Outstanding Student Debt: 11%

Sadly, the math works out.  Perhaps the US Department of Education should start negotiating a better bulk discount.



MONKEY BUSINESS

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