Apple's earnings report was *too good*. People don't think Apple can beat it. Here's why that's a problem.
The company earned an $18 billion profit on $74.6 billion in revenue. That profit was more than any company had ever earned in history.
Apple's quarterly revenue was higher than Google's revenue for all of 2014. It was more than Amazon, Google, and Microsoft generated in revenue combined.
And yet, despite this awe-inspiring performance, there are lots of investors and analysts that think Apple is sorta screwed.
Basically, these people think that Apple did too well. They think there is no way Apple can top this quarter.
It's not an unreasonable position to take. After all, $74.6 billion in revenue is a lot of revenue. It's going to be hard for Apple to top that next year.
And yet, Apple has consistently outperformed the skeptics.
Apple is the world's most valuable company, so it's not like we could argue that people don't believe in it.
But, Apple's valuation is arguably low. Google, for instance, has a PE of 27.25. Apple has a PE of 16. And yet, Apple is growing faster than Google. Apple's sales were up 30%, while Google's revenues were only up 15% last quarter.
Can Apple deliver growth in the future? I say yes. And so does Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times.
We kicked around Apple's earnings report, as well as the earnings of Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft on this week's podcast which you can listen to here: