Can Apple’s Stock Get Back on Track?

BOSTON — Some of the biggest hedge funds that helped make Apple Inc a stock market darling lost faith and dumped their stakes in the fourth quarter, fueling the massive drop in the iPhone maker’s share price. Noted stock pickers including Leon Cooperman, Eric Mindich and Thomas Steyer unloaded billions of dollars of Apple shares between September 30 and December 31, according to disclosure documents filed on Thursday.

Trefis submits: Apple’s (AAPL) iPad apps can help slow the decline in average app pricing on the iTunes app store; however the impact on Apple’s stock of such an outcome is small.

Apple posted quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per share (an increase of 94% in net income). These results compare to revenue of $24.7 billion and net profit of $6.0 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share, for the same quarter in 2011. Apple’s Gross margin was 47.4% (the best ever) compared to 41.4% in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64% of the quarter’s revenue.

While the folks at Apple Inc. appear outwardly glib in their dismissal of a shareholder lawsuit over the deployment of the tech giant’s US$137.1-billion cash reserves, the rest of corporate America should be getting an uneasy feeling. With so many companies holding near-record cash positions as protection in a post-financial crisis world, those fortresses could be making them vulnerable to attack.

Trefis submits: The growth trajectory of iPhone sales could lift Apple’s (AAPL) stock past $300. iPhone unit sales grew 131% last quarter compared to the same quarter in 2009.

Trefis submits: Apple’s (AAPL) competes with Dell (DELL), HP (HPQ), and Sony Corporation (SNE) in the desktop PC market.

Trefis submits: Apple (AAPL) competes with Motorola (MOT), Nokia (NOK) and Research in Motion (RIMM) in the mobile phone market.