Apple’s shares showed some resilience on Tuesday after the chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, announced he was taking a medical leave of absence just ahead of the release of the company’s quarterly earnings.
The announcement on Monday that Mr. Jobs, 55, would take a leave of absence a year and a half after his return from a liver transplant raised some questions about the long-term prospects for Apple, given the influence and inspiration that he has wielded at the company he co-founded three decades ago.
But analysts have said they expected a strong earnings report later on Tuesday
“The stock has performed quite well this morning in view of the news,” Charles Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Company said, adding that the stock prices reflected a buying opportunity.
Apple’s shares fell more than 4 percent at the open but regained ground as the day went on. Even with the decline, the company’s shares were almost 6 percent higher for the year.
“The reality is the stock was not very expensive to begin with,” Mr. Wolf said. “It was downright cheap by any measure of valuation. That served to contain the decline.”
Michael H. Abramsky, the managing director for RBC Capital Markets, said that Apple’s fundamentals have not changed.
“Clearly Steve is a huge part of Apple,” Mr. Abramsky added. “At the same time Apple has great products in the pipeline.”
The company has seen strong sales across almost all of its products, and analysts have forecast earnings of $5.47 to more than $6 a share, with sales of 4 million Mac computers and 15 million iPhones. Most analysts forecast first-quarter revenue at $24.4 billion.
Mr. Jobs, who recovered from pancreatic cancer after surgery in 2004, has not appeared at public events since October, and has looked increasingly frail in recent weeks, according to people who have seen him. He also took a leave of several months in 2009, when he left Timothy D. Cook, the chief operating officer, in charge.
Mr. Cook, who will take over day-to-day operations, joined Apple nearly 13 years ago and is otherwise responsible for the company’s worldwide sales and operations. He kept the development of products like the iPhone 4 and the iPad on track, increased Macintosh computer sales and improved Apple’s financial performance during an economic downturn.
Mr. Wolf said that Mr. Jobs had a talent for bringing “disruption” to the industry with Apple products, and then building an “ecosystem” around the products that drew in customers, like with iTunes and Apps stores. He agreed that to some extent these developments have made the company self-sustaining.
“The reality is nothing is going to happen at the company for years,” he said. “The next several years’ performance is going to be absolutely identical to what it was in the past. Steve didn’t care how the stock performed.”
“The reality is I did not see any new product coming out in 2011 and possibly 2012,” he said.
Mr. Wolf said the timing of the announcement just ahead of the results report was cause for reflection. “I don’t think they would have announced it yesterday unless they had a blockbuster quarter,” he said.
“I think investors are concerned but cautiously optimistic that this situation will not be deeply negative for Apple,” he said.
“Clearly Steve is a huge part of Apple,” he added. “At the same time Apple has great products in the pipeline.”
Craig Berger, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Company, said there would “naturally” be some investor concerns about Mr. Jobs’ leave “given his importance in the company and his hands-on managerial style.”
But Mr. Berger, who analyzes companies that provide chips for Apple products, said those manufacturers were still set to supply chips for millions and millions of iPhones and iPads in 2011.
“So from that perspective this news doesn’t change anything, and the refreshed iPhone and iPad products in queue are going to launch regardless,” he said in an e-mailed statement. (source: Christine Hauser -NYT)
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