I’ve used both common stock and call opt…

Here’s the story.  Back in 1997, right after Steve Jobs took back over the CEO job at Apple, Michael Dell told a bunch of tech investors that if he were in charge of Apple he would, “‘d shut it down and give the money  back to the shareholders.”

Then in 2006, Steve Jobs Jobs sent an email to Apple employees, which read: “Team, it turned out that Michael Dell  wasn’t perfect at predicting the future. Based on today’s stock market  close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things  may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of  reflection today. Steve.”

Fast forward to 2011 and let’s help Steve update that email:

It turns out that Apple is now worth more than ten times more than Dell.   10x!

With today’s “big stock rally” in Dell, the company is now worth more than $30 billion.  Wouldn’t it be fun to do a compare and  contrast between Apple vs Dell and Steve Jobs vs Michael Dell in an blog  post and see what investment conclusions we come up with?  So let’s do  this.

Apple’s market cap today: $310 billion

Dell’s market cap today: $30 billion

—-

Steve Jobs net worth: $8.3 billion

Michel Dell’s net worth: $14 billion

—-

Apple’s stock returns since 1988: 7000%

Dell’s stock returns since 1988: 20,000% plus

—-

Apple’s stock returns since Michael Dell said they should shut it down: 7000%

Dell’s stock returns since Michael Dell said they should shut it down: 500%

—-

Steve Jobs vs Michael Dell trending on Google over the years (Steve is much, much more popular and always has been):

—-

Apple vs Dell trending on Google over the years (Dell used to be a more popular search, but Apple has since completely blown passed Dell it…sorta like in market cap, come to think of it!):

—-

I first bought Apple back in March of 2003, when it was at $7 a share and I wrote the following for my subscribers:

“Cody  Willard Apple in my eye 4/29/03 10:50 AM ET

Now, we’ve been buying Apple and Apple calls when it was getting  crushed off the Universal Music purchase rumors. And I like the  valuation on this stock and the fact that every investor and trader to  whom I mention that I own says ‘What?! Why?!’ long aapl, aapl calls”

And it was back in 2005 that I first predicted that Apple wouldn’t just pass Dell in market cap, but that it would eventually catch Microsoft in market cap, which at the time was 5x bigger:

“Cody  Willard Apple in my eye 12/15/05 11:33 AM ET

With Apple having blown by Oracle in market cap already, I wonder how much longer before it catches Cisco. Then Intel.  Then Microsoft? Let me go ahead and be the one to throw it out there  first: I wouldn’t be shocked to see Apple more valuable than Microsoft  sometime in 2007. What a mind-blowing thing to think to ponder.”

I’ve used both common stock and call options over the years since that I’ve remained long Apple to maximize my profits along the way.  I continue to own Apple nowadays.