pondside

About That Google Earnings Beat...

I think you're mixing up GAAP and non-GAAP estimates and results. Like many companies, Google reports 2 sets of numbers, and analysts often estimate non-GAAP results, which are usually higher than the GAAP results. I haven't checked it out, but I suspect that accounts for the discrepancies you're seeing.

Apple's (the Stock) Best Days May be Behind It - Try Thoratec Instead

Apple's earnings and revenues are growing very well lately, but this growth has been masked by their accounting. The iPhone business is accounted for on a 24 month basis - the revenue for an iPhone sold today trickles in over the next 24 months. So the very strong iPhone growth will only slowly appear in Apple's revenues and earnings. Check out their non-GAAP earnings as well as their deferred revenues to verify this for yourself, and then you will understand why Apple is still a growth story.

Four U.S. Refiners: Share Pricing and Industry Strength

One thing you're missing, is that these companies have a lot of "liquid assets" such as oil and refined oil products. In VLO's most recent 10Q, they listed their inventory as including $4.5 billion of refinery feedstocks and products. In addition, the market value of LIFO inventories exceeded their carrying costs by $7.6 billion. So there's another $12 billion in enterprise value that is not reflected in your numbers, although I'm sure this value is smaller since oil prices have decreased since their 10Q report was issued due to falling oil prices.