[ericsink]

"Apple could have zero growth and remain highly profitable for years."

Sure they could. But Wall Street would punish their stock price anyway.

Not everything about the way AAPL fluctuates is rational. Maybe NOTHING about it is rational. :-)

But the concerns about Apple's ability to sustain its ridiculous growth ARE quite real. Their growth IS slowing.

[x0x0]

but doesn't the low p/e indicate most growth is already priced out of apple?

as of today (numbers from yahoo finance):

   tick  p/e
   amzn  506
   fb     87.6
   goog   30.25
   csco   16.67
   intc   16.55
   hp     16.29
   msft   15.83
   appl   15.4
   ibm    12.4
   twtr   n/a (<0)
   (sorted descending)

[tempestn]

One would think so. It's nice to see a company with a lot of buzz have a reasonable p/e. (As the largest company in the world, how massive could it's growth really be?) I personally had no idea it was so low - especially compared to the likes of Amazon. Of course the price could still drop if earnings do.