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A comment on My Developer friends are upset about Apple vs Amazon. Parent comment

Re:My Developer friends are upset about Apple vs Amazon by sxcurry on Sunday February 03, 2013 @04:56PM (#5161354)
Your analysis seems to ignore a fundamental number - the Price/Earnings ratio. Looking at a forward PE, which is a number that help drive stock prices, Apple is around 10 and Amazon over 100. No matter what you thing about Apple vs Android, etc, this fundamental valuation number is way out of whack for Amazon. BTW, I hold Amazon stock and think it's a great company.
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Re:My Developer friends are upset about Apple vs Amazon by rednukleus on Sunday February 03, 2013 @05:06PM (#5161393)
Forward P/E only looks at expected profit over the next 12 months, which is likely to be very high for Apple, and very low for Amazon. The big question is, what will the situation be in 5, 10, 20 years?
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Re:My Developer friends are upset about Apple vs Amazon by YZF on Sunday February 03, 2013 @05:52PM (#5161559)
Forward PE is a guess. Amazon has shown it can sell a lot of stuff at a loss. Guess what, so can I. Apple has shown it can sell stuff with huge profits. That was the past. In the future- who knows...
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Re:My Developer friends are upset about Apple vs Amazon by 18pfsmt on Sunday February 03, 2013 @07:06PM (#5161779)
I'm not sure what you are talking about, but the Price:Earnings ratio is not a guess. It is based on past SEC filings. To suggest as much indicates a significant lack of understanding on your part, and I am really not sure what business you have discussing this topic with anybody.

Edit: I realize that Forward P/E is different from P/E, but various analysts use various numbers for Forward P/E, so it is not a definitive metric in the first place.

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Re:My Developer friends are upset about Apple vs Amazon by YZF on Sunday February 03, 2013 @08:20PM (#5161946)
The comment above spoke about "this fundamental valuation number" regarding FORWARD P/E. Forward P/E is a guess (== varius analysts use various numbes == Almost always wrong sometimes in a major way). That's why I made the comment. I understand perfectly well what P/E is.

EDIT: Companies also manipulate E in various ways so even though P/E is supposedly not as fictitious as forward P/E you also have to be careful with that number.

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