Apple Social Data Shows Stock Is Ahead Of Reality

This article was published earlier this afternoon, before Apple reported earnings.

Apple Inc. AAPL is one of the most beloved companies in the world. Its products are amazing, and consumers will literally camp out to be the first ones to buy.
So we must be bullish on Apple, right?
Not so fast. We are seeing signs in social data (viewable in the LikeFolio app) that Apple’s stock might be ahead of itself here…
Here are three reasons we are wary of owning Apple going into earnings:
1. Mention Volume is flat. People just aren’t talking about the company at a growing rate. With the watch being released.. a major new product line… you’d think we would see some uptick, despite the summer months. But we haven’t.

2. Social Sentiment is relatively weak. Of course, with Apple–that’s very relative. Relative to itself. At 88 percent positive, this is a company that consumers obviously love– but not as much as they used to. We used to see numbers consistently in the 92-95 percent positive range… and that slippage could mean consumer fatigue with the company.
3. New products flopping. Again– this is relative to Apple’s past performance. But, as we predicted when it was revealed… and then again just prior to launch… people aren’t really into the Apple Watch. And don’t get us started on the swift rejection of Apple Music.
These three things wouldn’t be all that concerning if the stock wasn’t crushing all-time highs on Wall Street. But together, it makes us concerned that the stock has gotten ahead of what’s actually happening on main street.