Gullible Finance ⇥ esjewett.com

On Tuesday, a little-known trader from Nashville named David Trainer wrote a blog post claiming that Apple stock is worth around $240 per share.

Ethan Jewett decided to fact-check this bit of speculation:

Turns out, the analysis is based on a “what if” scenario assuming that Apple had a Return On Invested Capital (ROIC) for 2012 of 70% and for 2013 (to date) of 52%. These drive a calculated Economic Book Value per Share around $240, which is apparently Trainer’s target.

Because the media loves controversy, Trainer appeared on CNBC and was featured on MarketWatch, despite his calculations lacking any factual merit whatsoever, and nobody promoting his theory questioned nor double-checked his math. Asinine.