Darcy Travlos  Darcy Travlos, Contributor   5/17/2012 @ 6:08AM
|7,283 views  Apple's Recent Stock Price: Explanations  Image
representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase  Apple is trading
at $546.  As recently as April 9, it touched $640.  A year ago,
it was $332.  So the stock appreciated 93% from a year ago to
its high, and has retreated 15%.  The retreat is making
investors nervous because a $94 price drop sounds much worse
than a 15% decline on the heels of a 93% run-up.  Why is Apple’s
stock gyrating so much?  Psychology.  Trading.  Institutional
Ownership.  Any or all of these may move around a stock
irrationally and create a buying opportunity for long-term
investors (ie, be the one who bought at $332 and still has a 67%
return to date).  Other potential explanations include chatter
about subsidy reduction on the iPhone and some data out of Asia
that suppliers to the iPhone have cut their orders.  Let’s take
these in order.  The stock has appreciated over the past year,
and for good reasons.  Apple has