I picked this up over at iPhoneFreak. It is good to know that one of the major new products that Apple (one of our Good Companies) has a decent profit margin.

A recent report from BroadPoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshal suggests that Apple is going to be making more than $200 for every iPad they are able to sell. The range of profit appears to range from $208 on the $499 model and up to $446 on the $829 model.

“According to a bill of materials (BOM) analysis by Brian Marshall of BroadPoint AmTech, the cost of goods inside Apple’s 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad totals $270.50. That figure includes a $10 line item dedicated to manufacturing, but doesn’t include another $20 set aside for under-warranty service costs. Adding the latter makes Marshall’s bottom-line total $290.50.”

Also interesting to note, but not surprising is that the display was the most expensive part on the list, coming in at $100. That however can be off-set by the lower price of the Apple A4 chip which was noted as being just $15. Other prices include the 16GB of memory and the aluminum casing both of which were $25 each.

This means the profit margin for the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad is roughly 42.9%.

In terms of the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model, based on the same estimates that model is only costing Apple an extra $16 to make which means they will be making a higher profit on the +3G models. On the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model it was noted that the profit margin jumped up to 52%.

I caution you that just because the profit margin on this one product is good, it doesn’t mean the company will maintain as a good company to invest your money. The actions or inactions of its managers are the real drivers of solid performance.

Investopedia has a great article on Amazon and its ability to build and sustain a successful business. I think there analysis is quite good. I continue to think that the company is worth buying and holding even though the current technicals indicate waiting for a bit of a rebound.

Online retailer Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) continues to pour it on. This online juggernaut, which now sells just about everything under the sun, reported results that continue to defy expectations. In the 2009 fourth quarter, net sales shot up by 37% on an apples-to-apples comparison. The bottom line benefited even more – up 71% in the quarter, representing 85 cents per share. For the full year, sales were up nearly 30% to $24.5 billion and net income reached $900 million, up 40%. Even more impressive is the effect on cash: free cash flow for 2009 was nearly $3 billion, more than twice the cash generated in 2008.

There is more good information in the original article so click through to read the rest.

As reported by Investopedia:

After releasing expectation-busting quarterly earnings and boosting its outlook for 2010, shares of DVD rental company Netflix (Nasdaq:NFLX) soared more than 20% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

The strong “thumbs-up” from investors was in response to a 36% jump in fourth-quarter net income to 56 cents per share, up from 38 cents a year earlier. The result also handily sailed past the Street’s expectations of 49 cents for the quarter.

Underlying the company’s strong profit growth has been its surprisingly strong subscriber growth. Netflix’s subscriber tally at the end of the quarter came to 12.3 million, up 31% from its year-end total in 2008, and up 10% in the last quarter alone.

According to Blogging Stocks, Tim Moran is predicting that Apple (AAPL) will soon be offering its ground-breaking iPhone on all carriers. His prediction is for 2010.

I can’t find another source of this prediction but if it does happen, it will be a major blow to every other handset vendor. The iPhone still has a significant advantage over the other phones. The biggest drawback for the phone is the network that ATT uses has created a great deal of consternation.

Yes, it could get way, way better. Tim Moran with Oppenheimer & Co. believes that the iPhone will reach all major U.S. wireless carriers in 2010. It’s as if Apple hasn’t sold enough iPhones already. That number could be punched up in a huge way if Moran is correct.

It makes sense — Apple has accomplished handset sales in the U.S. with one product (several updated versions, of course) and one carrier, completely changing the landscape of what most consumers think a cutting-edge wireless phone is. If Apple were to unleash an iPhone for all the other carriers besides AT&T (T), it could add to its $40 billion cash hoard significantly.

UPDATE: BusinessWeek is also reporting this story.

I picked this up over at Investopedia. This is a great article about losing money using Leveraged ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds). While there are some investment vehicles that make sense (such as index funds) there are some that simply don’t work out once you understand them.  This is the case with leveraged funds.  Rather than re-explain the math here, I suggest that you jump over to Investopedia to read it.  Below are some hightlights:

Have you ever wondered how you can make sure that your portfolio loses money? For those of you who are tired of that extra cash weighing down your pockets and would rather just lose it aimlessly than give it to a worthy cause, I found the ideal investment: levered [sic-leveraged] exchange traded funds.
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Consider a hypothetical stock that is tracked by two double-levered [sic] ETFs, one bull, one bear. Since the debt portion of the instrument must consistently be rebalanced to ensure a proper debt-to-equity ratio, the funds track the daily performance of the stock rather than the overall annual percent change. Suppose this stock, with an initial value of $100 experiences a 25% price decline, followed by a 25% increase and then a 6.67% increase to bring its price back up to $100. A double-levered bull ETF would have a terminal value of $85 ($100*1.50*0.50*1.133) while the inverse fund would be worth only $65 ($100*0.50*1.50*0.87). This is, of course, before we factor in the management expense ratio. Essentially, despite the trend in the market, these instruments will lose value due to the daily volatility of the underlying asset.