Apple With A New CEO: I'm Still Buying It

It always seems that Apple (AAPL) in some way is able to draw the attention of all media outlets, regardless of genre. This time it is with the iconic American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, and the news of his resignation as Chief Executive Officer of Apple. However, as he still remains Chairman of the Board, he is not gone from Apple and will often be in talks with the new CEO Tim Cook. Events like this do not affect the short term outlook for Apple as much as they may cause long term issues, because Apple usually has a pretty set outlook for at least a year, and at this point almost two years.

The soonest product to be released will be the iPhone 5. For investors this is huge and the iPhone 5 may be the best-selling Apple iPhone ever. One reason for this is the expansion of carriers that Apple becomes partners with. The Wall Street Journal announced that the iPhone 5 will release in mid-October and now on a third U.S. carrier, Sprint (S), joining Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T). Apple will also be increasing its intentional market share as Tim Cook and Apple Executives are currently in negotiations with two of the largest Chinese carriers, China Mobile (CHL) and China Telecom (CHA). Another piece of evidence to back predictions that the iPhone 5 will beat its predecessors is that Apple actually discussed that it will spend a large amount of the Company's over $75 Billion in cash in order to increase inventory of the iPhone 5, also evident by the later release date.

On a different front, Apple has been winning legal battles that will help increase iPhone 5 sales. To minimize the phone's competition in stores, lawyers for Apple have been working hard and have once again come home with another victory as The Economic Times reports that Apple won an injunction on Wednesday which bans three Samsung Smartphones from 10 European nations. The Samsung Smartphones which infringed on certain Apple patents include Samsung's Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, and the Galaxy Ace. Earlier this month Apple won a ruling in Germany banning the sale of Samsung's newest Galaxy Tablet.

Other good news for Apple is that research firm NPD reported that Apple had strong Mac sales for the month of July. Sales of Macs grew 26% year over year and this was driven by the July 20th release of the newest MacBook Air and the recent release of the operating system OS X Lion. Other factors include back to school sales and promotions. Many college semesters started classes this week so even though the actual numbers for August have not been released yet, the argument could be made that back to school sales and promotions were strong this year and students made their purchases before moving back onto the college campus. Apple has been successful in growing its Mac business because the high quality of the product line is not in competition with tablets. Tablet computers have cannibalized PC growth for many companies over the past two years.

Looking forward even further for investors and consumers, it seems that Apple has a product pipeline currently filled with several products for the next few years, including the already mentioned iPhone 5, the iPad 3, and new versions of Apple's iPod and Mac computers. More important is that Jonathan Ive, the amazing designer at Apple, with an impressive resume of the iPod, iPhone and the iPad, will most likely want to show that Apple can continue on without Steve Jobs, by providing consumers with his best work.

My recent strategy has been Call positions that are in the money. The options play on Apple allows many investors to be involved in Apple's growth even without dishing out the $38,000 to buy 100 shares. I have owned the November 385 and January 365 Calls, along with other positions, that I have been able to successfully flip as the global economy shows small signs of improvement and stability mixed in with days of turmoil. Another strategy to fund the Calls would be to straddle Apple. Looking out with the launch of the iPhone 5 and then Christmas, I would not look to cap my gains by selling Calls, but many Seeking Alpha investors have talked about the macroeconomic issues and realize that even stellar Apple performances can be wiped out. If I were to straddle Apple I would look to sell two of the November 2011 Puts with a 315 strike, netting over $800, and look at selling one January 2012, 450 strike Call, netting $1100, this being a 2:1 ratio strategy. Apple would need to rise over 17% or plummet 20% before the Call or Put would be in the money respectively.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in AAPL over the next 72 hours.