Barron’s Says Apple is America’s Most Respected Company – I Beg to Differ

Barron’s, one of my favorite weekly reads, published the results of a survey this weekend that showed Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) as America’s most respected company. With all due respect to the publishers of this great investors’ tool, I beg to differ. Barron’s says that what matters most is that the company display strong management; that it practice ethical business; it should have a sound business strategy; display a competitive edge and show product innovation. I think we can make a critical argument against each of these factors in Apple’s case. Finally, I think that what investors report to Barron’s is not being backed up by real investment dollars in many cases, based on my interpretation of the one true measure of investor respect, valuation. With all that being said, Apple still tops my list among stocks to own today. That is because I believe it dropped the ball in years past and is a value today because of it ahead of what I hope will be one of the big new value-added developments I have long been waiting for. For more, see Barron’s Rated Apple as America’s Most Respected Company – I Beg to Differ. The top five companies included Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B), Boeing (NYSE: BA), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) (Nasdaq: GOOGL) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).