Apple, the 2nd most profitable company worldwide: Do you find it hard to believe?

I'm not surprised, Exxon, an oil and gas company being the most profitable company in the world. Imagine the amount of oil and gas the world consumes every minute. Then comes along Apple at second place. That's incredible! It's incredible because it is difficult to wrap your head around.

You might even think brands such as Sony or Samsung may exceed Apple. After all, Sony and Samsung sells TVs, cameras, camcorders, Hi-Fi systems, home theater systems and among other products that Apple does not sell.

You might even think that a popular car manufacturer such as Toyota would profit more since it is so popular and costs way more than an iPad or a Mac. Yet, the profit pales in comparison.

Ok, fine, Steve Jobs did say that they do sell so many iPads that it's extremely difficult to manufacture fast enough but how many products from Coca-Cola (Coke, Sprite, Fanta) is sold worldwide every 10 seconds?! Nope, Coca-Cola does not compare. McDonald's? No.

What about banks? Jesus Christ, the amount of interest and fees that they charge is staggering.

There are other prominent commodity and energy companies that do not even come close to Apple.

It leads me to believe that not only Apple profit from products but from iTunes store as well. A substantial amount. Still, I do not understand.

Does anyone understand why? Or have any personal theories?

Of course they profit from their activities. It is known as excellent market place business. And as a shareholder I expect them to return a fair profit margin on everything they handle. Apple is not a charitable institution.

Its shows how well their goods and services are doing if either of those fail so do profits.

Saudi Aramco has a net worth of around $10 trillion USD. Not too bad either. Of course it essentially IS the Saudi Arabian Treasury as much as a company.

@simonvee:

Please observe the proper protocol for posting in the Rumors and Reports forum. In other words, read the instructions from the Sticky Post above. You did not post a link regarding the subject you posted about. Therefore, we need to move it to another forum (Lounge).

harryb2448 said:

Of course they profit from their activities. It is known as excellent market place business. And as a shareholder I expect them to return a fair profit margin on everything they handle. Apple is not a charitable institution.

Click to expand...

Do you buy their shares to earn dividends or capital gain?

If the former, what is their rate of return?

Go to a stockbroker like I did. Purchased 29 june 1999 Apple was going B-A-D when price was US$45.26 from memory. Here is the latest closing price:-


http://quotes.wsj.com/AAPL

Harryb: you bought when I sold! I had bought it at around $14 and made a tasty profit on it, but I didn't think (at the time) it was going to go any higher. I never got back into it, but am thinking of doing so now.

Did you know that if someone had bought a share of unsplit AAPL in early May 1987 (right before the first-ever split) and hold onto it through the various splits and growth, they'd have seen a 5,286 percent return on investment??

OW!

simonvee said:

What about banks? The amount of interest and fees that they charge is staggering.

Click to expand...

Fixed that for you.

Well all I can say is .. thanks chas m! Had just purchased a Bondi Blue iMac and thought it would be a shame if Apple went under so spent a few hundred from my retirement fund. Got any more at that price mate?