Some analysts comments Apple grabbed attention on Friday after posting better-than-expected results for its fiscal second quarter, with the iPhone 17 range still clearly landing well with customers. That said, it was the outlook for the next quarter — especially on gross margins — that really caught even the most bullish on Wall Street off guard. In a good way. Margin worries ease Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring said Apple’s forecast of 47.5% to 48.5% gross margins for the upcoming quarter — despite “significantly” higher memory costs — came as a nice surprise. “Revenue and profit strength are holding up, including a standout June quarter margin outlook, which makes us more confident Apple can handle record cost inflation,” he wrote in a note to clients. He added that the latest results were likely the turning point investors were waiting for, setting the shares up to perform well heading into the September iPhone launch. Woodring kept his Overweight rating and lifted his price target to $330 from $315. For the next quarter, Apple expects total revenue to grow between 14% and 17% year-on-year — well ahead of the 9.3% analysts had pencilled in. Services revenue should come in roughly in line with the March quarter, even after stripping out favourable currency movements. On rising memory costs, outgoing CEO Tim Cook said on the earnings call that Apple would “look at a range of options” to manage the impact. Product momentum and supply chain edge While margin concerns seem to have eased for now, J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee pointed out that Apple’s product momentum is pretty exceptional at the moment. “Despite investor concerns, the bigger challenge for Apple looks to be on the supply side — particularly getting hold of advanced processors needed to keep up with stronger-than-expected iPhone demand, and increasingly for Macs too,” he said. He noted a recent spike in demand for the Mac mini, Mac Studio, and the newly launched MacBook Neo. Chatterjee also said the upbeat guidance suggests Apple is gaining market share across its product lines, thanks to strong customer demand and better supply chain management — especially when it comes to memory — compared with rivals. He raised his revenue forecasts, stuck with an Overweight rating, and kept a $325 price target. Citi analyst Atif Malik said so-called “agentic” AI is boosting demand for Macs, putting Apple in a solid position to benefit from the AI wave. During the earnings call, Apple highlighted strong demand for the Mac mini and Mac Studio tied to AI use cases, while MacBook demand has been “off the charts”. Given Apple’s sheer scale and buying power, Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers said that’s turning into a real competitive advantage — particularly versus other PC makers. “We see Apple’s economies of scale as a major plus in the current environment,” he said, pointing to a big jump in long-term purchase commitments, which could signal major supply agreements, including for memory.

@Adam-Kay said in Dashboard performance charts.: J, I wish you’d mentioned this a while ago. [image: 1740153593731-screen-shot-2025-02-21-at-15.56.38.png] Crumbs. That's not shabby.

Cheers Nik No urgency at all, I have another question, I shall ping off an email to you in the morning again no urgency on it

@Dangermouse The current indication is that beneficiary pensions within a DB scheme will be classed as outside the estate. Given that they are paid as income and taxed in the hands of the recipient as income there is already tax claimed on this benefit. It is also likely that an annuity with ongoing beneficiary payments after death would also be treated as outside the estate. The main "target" is unused pension pots that at the moment pass as a tax free lump of cash on death before 75. Cheers

Vertex have a good track record. We can't ever expect anything more that 'could, might, maybe'. It's still a drug trial. Nothing is certain until it's approved and commercialised. Vertex specialise in what is called Transformative therapies. Drugs which transform the pathway of a disease from mere managing symptoms to a long term cure/outcome. It's nice to know we invest in something that improves peoples quality of like. More specifically Vertex focus on genetic diseases (gene editing) In terms of success from drug trials. At phase 1 statistically, the odds of success sit at 10-15%. At the conclusion of a successful phase 3 trial-and the results were not just positive, they were extremely positive, the odds increase to 85-90% so I am confident they are onto something. There are many more drugs in their pipeline-Diabetes is the next potential break-through

It's a great business albeit not that exciting-safe and durable. Their scale and reach opens them up to finding something to complain about-at the end of the day they are a business, they have millions of customers. Some won't be happy customers. Apple gets a lot of flack from some too. Ive always found them a pleasure to deal with. In saying that ive never had a piece of expensive hardware fail prematurely and tried to get some goodwill but I have dealt with their support relating to products many years outside warranty(without Apple Care) and always found them helpful.

Just to round this off….it was 9 days from placing order to receiving money with Fidelity Happy with the Cobens timeframe

Ok sure, send it over

Morning, Air time is driven by: Weight or our position vs the market position. We were contrarians with SMCI (still are). SMCI drives a lot of opinion! The significance of the company vs the sector Companies driving change/innovation (driving news) My personal interests-and what I think others find interesting-esoteric sectors Cobens has 20k clients and we managed 3X more assets than IM before the rescue I appreciate that we talk about Tech a lot and a couple of holdings in particular. The fact is Nvidia drives/is a barometer of the wider sector(and the market) and what is good/bad for Nvidia impacts other big names.

@nilamac said in Is there plans to improve the forum structure?: @Renmure-Jim I hope this never happens. Or that the moderators block/remove them ... Can’t believe you can have a serious forum about pensionzzzzzz and investmentzzzzz and savingzzzzz without a few cats thrown into the mix for a bit of balance. Hey ho.

@dingg said in Fed rate cut 50bps: Yes, today will be stellar, show on tomorrow's read out Friday is opex, going to be volatile, closing just positive (he says optimistically) You are of a more optimistic mindset than me! Or (much more likely) you simply have different portfolio allocations. For me, Thursday (i.e results shown on Friday) was decent but not huge. And Friday (results shown on Saturday) was slightly down. Hoping for big things on Monday (Tuesday's results), but then I hope for that every day!

Hi-it was 45%

Today Alphabet announced its quantum-computing team delivered a verifiable quantum advantage via its “Willow” chip and “Quantum Echoes” algorithm running ~13,000× faster than a classical supercomputer. This isn’t just hype — the hardware, software stack and experimental validation all align. On top of that, Alphabet remains one of the most profitable companies in the world: it reported a net income in excess of US$100 billion in its latest full year. In the battleground of mega-cap tech, alphabets like Nvidia Corporation, Microsoft Corporation and Apple Inc. grab the headlines — but Alphabet quietly leads in profit, while trading at a discount to them. Why that matters: It shows Alphabet is not just a search and ads company — it’s positioning for the next frontier of computing (quantum, AI infrastructure, cloud). It gives it a solid financial base: when profit margins are strong and cash flows healthy, you have the flexibility to experiment and pivot. OTHER BETS It may mean the market is under-estimating Alphabet’s upside: if these emerging bets pay off, the valuation gap could shrink. Yes, hurdles remain (commercialising quantum, cloud dominance, regulatory headwinds), but dismissing Alphabet now would overlook its smart strategy and deep pockets.

@Renmure-Jim said in Remaining ISA allowance bug in the system?: I’ve taken advantage of the flexible ISA a couple of times for significant purchases within a tax year and found the withdrawing and repaying to be pretty simple and intuitive. I'll second this. Most ISA providers don't offer flexible ISA's (my previous ISA provider didn't even know what one was.) This was a major factor in me moving my ISA to IM a few years ago.

I've just gone in - no problems....

Hi D, Netflix is set to drop its Q1 2025 earnings after the market shuts on 17 April. Analysts expect earnings per share (EPS) will hit $5.74, up 8.7% from $5.28 last year, with revenue expected at $10.54 billion, a 12.5% jump year-on-year. That’s pretty close to Netflix’s own forecast of $10.46 billion in revenue and an operating margin of 28.2%. They’ve got a history of smashing EPS forecasts, beating expectations in all four of the last reported quarters, like Q4 2024 when they pulled off $4.27 against $4.20 expected. That said, it's hard to know but their numbers should be solid. Everyone’s eyeing their ad-supported memberships, which made up 55% of sign-ups in ad markets last quarter, and their content line-up, with several content hits. They won’t disclose subscriber numbers anymore, focusing on revenue and margins instead.

Thanks from me also!

Minor update: remember that token £1 which I moved to Schwab's UK bank account? It arrived back in our UK bank account yesterday, with a message saying something like "Transaction bounced". I guess something went wrong somewhere so I'll chalk this one up as 'one of those things' and have another go (perhaps). Perhaps with £100 this time, which is hopefully enough not to get lost. Thanks for your help.

Heh heh!