CNBC
Video: Jim Cramer rips into Citi's hot-cold Apple analysis
December 19, 2012: 6:52 AM ETThe pot may be calling the kettle black, but in this case it's richly deserved
Cramer on Citi. Click to view.
FORTUNE -- I'd been wondering what to say about Citigroup's (C) coverage of Apple (AAPL), which took a sharp turn for the worse with the departure of its 16-year veteran analyst Richard Gardner last spring.
Not only did Citi miss Apple's run from $560 to $705 -- a six-month stretch when the bank provided no coverage at all -- but then the new team gave clients a 20-day one-two punch: Issuing a Buy at $571 just before the stock fell to $509.79, then downgrading Apple to Neutral just before shares bounced back to $533.90.
As I say, I was wondering whether to comment on this string of spectacularly bad advice when "kylobbyist," a long-time member of Investor Village's AAPL Sanity board (and no fan of CNBC's Jim Cramer) pointed out that the king of hot-and-cold Apple TV commentators tore into Citi's back-to-back reports Tuesday night. "I just spit out a nice glass of cabernet," she posted. "I'm about to gag."
I found the No Huddle Offense clip, and embedded it below. Despite a few slips of the tongue, Cramer did a good job. I have nothing to add, except that Citi may regret the day it let Richard Gardner go.
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The unrepentant Ed Zabitsky and his $270 Apple price target
Some analysts will say anything to get on television
FORTUNE -- Can't something be done about Ed Zabitsky?
The first time we looked at ACI Research's chief (and only) tech analyst, back in January, he was telling his clients to sell Apple (AAPL) short.
The stock was trading for $450 at the time and was about to begin a run that would take it to $644. That didn't stop CNBC from booking him MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 27, 2012 11:40 AM ET -
Analyst: 'The entire cellphone and computing ecosystem will be shaken to the ground'
ACI Research's Edward Zabitsky, who famously advised clients to short Apple when it was selling for $450 a share, has seen the future and it is Microsoft's Windows 8
We know what Ed Zabitzky thinks of Apple (AAPL). In a note issued in January, when the stock was selling for $450 a share, the CEO of ACI Research set a price target of $270 and told his institutional clients to sell it MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 10, 2012 3:01 PM ET -
Cramer on Apple: 'The greatest performing stock of our lives'
The host of CNBC's Mad Money makes it his first pick in the "ultimate growth portfolio"
It's easy to forget, amid the boo-yahs, the bluster and the silly sound effects, that Jim Cramer (magna cum laude, Harvard 1977) is smarter than the average talking head on CNBC.
And having famously explained how, as a hedge fund manager, he could manipulate Apple's (AAPL) share price by spreading false iPhone rumors, he redeemed himself somewhat MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 10, 2012 6:35 AM ET -
Apple and those LOL numbers
Now even the New York Times is misusing the "law of large numbers"
We can forgive the talking heads on CNBC for blathering on about mathematical "laws" of which they are totally ignorant. What do they know?
But when James B. Stewart, a Pulitzer-prize winning professor of business journalism at Columbia University writes about Apple (AAPL) "running up against the law of large numbers" in the New York Times, it's time for MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 25, 2012 11:18 AM ET -
Does anyone care what Ed Zabitsky says about Apple?
An analyst with a $270 target and "sell short" rating may have a credibility problem
I applaud my CNNMoney colleague Hibah Yousuf for trying to pin down which hedge funds have been dumping their Apple (AAPL) shares lately, but I'm not sure I would have used ACI Research's Edward Zabitsky as a source for a piece entitled Not everyone loves Apple's stock.
To call Zabitsky's most recent note -- published Jan. 25 -- an MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 18, 2012 12:11 PM ET -
Apple: The most undervalued large cap stock in the S&P 500
A blogger-analyst highlights the growing gap between its earnings and its stock price
"In just four-years," writes Andy Zaky in a passionately worded post published Sunday on his Bullish Cross blog, "Apple's earnings have grown 600% to $27.68, and its revenue skyrocketed 341% to $108.2 billion. That's the most explosive 4-year growth rate of any large-cap company on the entire S&P 500."
Yet Apple's (AAPL) shares closed last week at $363.57 with a MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 28, 2011 7:15 AM ETPosted in: Andy Zaky, Apple, Bullish Cross, Business Insider, CNBC, Earnings growth, P/E ratio, Steve Jobs -
Erin Burnett's last pot shot at Apple before Steve Jobs died
CNBC's favorite Apple basher, now at CNN, hasn't changed her snarky tone
On Oct. 4, the day Apple (AAPL) unveiled the iPhone 4S, CNN's Erin Burnett aired one of her "Seriously?!" pieces, a format in which the straight-talking anchor uses a mocking tone to puncture what- or whomever her target happens to be that day.
On Tuesday, it was the pre-announcement buzz surrounding the new iPhone.
"We visited our local Apple store," she MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 8, 2011 7:00 AM ET -
Apple zigs while the Dow zags. Hits intraday high of $422.86
When the rest of the market is tanking, the company's shares offer a relatively safe haven
On Monday, when the Dow opened down $250, Apple (AAPL) rose $11.13 (2.78%) to close at a new record $411.63. On Tuesday, Apple opened at $415.35 and hit $422.86 shortly after noon.
UPDATE: Apple closed Tuesday nearly where it started, at $413.45, up $1.82 (.44%) for the day.
To put Monday's close in perspective:
Apple shares were up MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 20, 2011 7:33 AM ETPosted in: Amazon, Apple, CNBC, Exxon, ExxonMobil, Google, Jim Cramer, Mad Money, Market capitalization, Microsoft, Steve Jobs -
The U.S. Treasury has less cash on hand than Apple Inc.
How the world's richest nation and the most valuable tech company stack up
Unless the debt ceiling is raised by Tuesday Aug. 2, the White House keeps reminding us, the U.S. government will no longer be able to pay its bills.
But the U.S. Treasury is already running low. Its closing balance as of Wednesday, July 27, was $73.768 billion.
To put that in perspective, Apple (AAPL) most recent earning statement shows that it was MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 29, 2011 6:38 AM ET
