While the market turmoil has taken some high-growth stocks to the woodshed (see: Netflix , Sina , Juniper ), there has been one relative beacon of strength: Apple.
The stunning sell-off has left the Nasdaq 9% lower on the year, but amid all the turmoil, shares of Apple are actually up 13% year-to-date.
So what's behind the resilience?
"From a valuation perspective, the stock is downright cheap," said BGC Partner's Collin Gillis (BUY Rating).
Apple trades at 13 times next year's earnings, while large-cap rivals Google and Amazon trade at 15 times and 82 times next year's earnings, respectively.
These are all well-known stats to Apple fans. Less familiar is Apple's multiple in terms of growth, and that's where the story gets more interesting.
As Gillis points out, Apple's PEG ratio (the price investors are willing to pay for Apple's rate of growth) sits at a paltry 0.2.
That's well below eBay and Google, which command respective price-to-growth ratios of 0.9 and 0.7.
"The valuation for the growth is the most attractive in the market," added Gillis.
Concerns about the health of CEO Steve Jobs continue to hover around the periphery. But when it comes to Apple, investors appear to follow a different set of rules.
Said Miller Tabak's Peter Boockvar: "There are stocks. There are bonds. And then there's Apple."
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