apple rod hall faint praise
5 months ago
Published December 16, 2021 by

Goldman Sachs’ Rod Hall damns Apple with faint praise (video)

“We’re not sellers, and we have been sellers in the past. We legitimately have a Neutral rating on it.”

From CNBC’s “Apple’s iPhone supply meeting demand so far, says Goldman Sachs’ Hall” which aired Thursday:

Goldman Sachs’ Rod Hall joins ‘Squawk on the Street’ to discuss Apple’s increasing ability to meet customer iPhone demand. Hall also discusses why Goldman maintains a neutral stock rating on the company.

My take: The clip stops just before Hall delivered what I thought was his best sound bite: “AR is vaporware.” Can’t disagree with that.

14 Comments

  1. David Emery said:
    Who cares what he thinks? His LENGTHY track record invalidates any potential value from his opinions. This guy doesn’t deserve to be here.

    8
    December 16, 2021
  2. Jonny T said:
    Cancel Rod Hall.

    Why? His contribution is sub-zero.

    2
    December 16, 2021
  3. Ken Cheng said:
    What?!? His context for Apple future sales is the weakening TV sales, weakening home printer sales, weak PCs?

    And he can’t read US iPhone demand because he has no way of assessing wireless carrier sales?

    I’m not sure his analysis has any actual data or depth to it.

    “Weak”.

    6
    December 16, 2021
  4. Alan Trerise said:
    Something is fishy with this guy. GS had consistent buy ratings on AAPL before his hire. When he started Nov. 2017 it switched to either hold or sell ever since. If they followed his advice, GS clients lost out on the run from $41 to $179. The fact he is still being put on the air suggests there is a GS strategy here we are not privy to.

    4
    December 16, 2021
    • David Emery said:
      > If they followed his advice, GS clients lost out on the run from $41 to $179.

      The fact he’s still employed by GS raises SERIOUS ethical concerns about GS as a company. I think Tim Cook should refuse to deal with GS. Let’s consider the possibilities:
      (1) he’s grossly incompetent and GS doesn’t care enough to monitor and then fire him.
      (2) he’s part of a plot within some part of GS to manipulate either stock price or stock purchases by outside investors.
      Others?

      2
      December 16, 2021
  5. Robert Paul Leitao said:
    One more time… Apple produces more products than the iPhone. Because the iPhone 13 series handsets are similar in form to the iPhone 12 series handsets, one can not glean any kind of sales trend from supply numbers. The carriers in the US continue to heavily promote the iPhone 13 series for their own purposes. The heavy carrier promotions will continue through the iPhone series handsets that will debut this fall – the iPhone 14 series handsets. Listening to Mr. Hall and seeing the equities he covers, he’s primarily a hardware enterprise analyst. He may not be the best analyst to be covering Apple for Goldman Sachs at this time. Increasingly, Apple is a services enterprise as well as a device maker.

    2
    December 16, 2021
    • Mark Visnic said:
      Agree Robert. It is a gross anachronism to categorize Apple as a hardware company. It effectively ceased being so years ago. Not all hardware analysts are as monolithic as Tonov Sackof and Rod Dull but, categorizing Apple among hardware companies is flawed from inception.

      This business is all about being right and getting (alpha) returns. Their track record on the essential objective of their craft provides the most graphic and compelling explanation of the magnitude of their failure.

      1
      December 16, 2021
    • David Emery said:
      Even when Apple was primarily ‘the iPhone company’, Hall was wrong about it.

      0
      December 16, 2021
  6. Aaron Belich said:
    “TV is weakening, PC’s are weakening…”

    iPad / iPhone / Android eliminated 75% of the PC market (WAG – correct me if that’s BS). And who replaces TV’s every 1-5 months years?

    Just assinine comments from Hall here.

    0
    December 16, 2021
  7. Rodney Avilla said:
    I am not quite sure whom Rod Hall is talking to. If his clients, for the past four years, have followed his advice and sold Apple, and he has never advised his clients to buy Apple, then who would be able to follow his advice to hold Apple?

    3
    December 16, 2021

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