Insiders' Blog

Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) spiked to a session high of $39.59 today following a headline from DealReporter that the European Commission will give approval to it's merger with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). Shares are now up 0.2 percent on the session.

There's no doubt that Apple is a formidable company, what with iPads and iPhones selling faster than hotcakes at a pro-carbohydrate convention. And it's easy to make comparisons of how many small countries Apple can buy with its cash, or how many iPads you could get in lieu of one share of Apple stock (1, with today's price at $500). Here's another shocking comparison which might take some aback somewhat.

Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) current market cap -- at about $466 billion -- is bigger than Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)...combined!

That's right. At $30.50 per share, Microsoft boasts a cap of $256 billion and Google is at the $199 billion level for a total cap of $455 billion.

One more fact, as reported by BGR.com, is that Apple is bigger than all of its vendor competitors combined. The blog said the total market cap of Samsung, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), HTC, Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI), RIM (Nasdaq: RIMM), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and LG, is only about $259 billion. In general, the total value of all smartphone vendors less Apple is $343 billion, meaning Apple's market cap is about 58 percent of the segment.

That's pretty telling. And Apple is still climbing higher, up 1.4 percent on the session.

All eyes were on Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Monday morning as the tech giant crossed $500 per share for the first time ever.

The milestone, while not technically important, is a key psychological level. Since reporting blow-out earnings on January 24th, the stock is up 19 percent. And since Steve Jobs passed away the stock is up 33 percent.

Despite the massive surge in the stock it can still be argued that shares are undervalued.

At current levels, Apple trades at just 11.9x FY12 EPS estimates. This is below the market multiple of about 14x. If shares traded at 14x this year's estimates, the stock would be at $593.

Analysts on Wall Street also believe the $500 level is just a stepping stone. The average price target on Wall Street is $578.47, according to data at StreetInsider.com's Rating Insider.

StreetInsider.com placed its own $800 price target on Apple.

Any way it's sliced, it looks like shares of Apple can continue to rise.

Regeneron Pharma (Nasdaq: REGN) shares are strongly higher Monday following its fourth-quarter report, but more importantly its outlook.

Regeneron said it now sees fiscal 2012 EYLEA sales in the US of $250 million to $300 million.

Otherwise, fourth-quarter adjusted loss came in at 27 cents per share, beating expectations calling for loss of 60 cents per share.

Shares are up about 12 percent early Monday morning.

Shares of Diamond Foods (Nasdaq: DMND) are moving higher Monday despite reports several walnut suppliers might stop supplying the company's wares.

On the heels of a hot accounting scandal involving the CEO and CFO of Diamond Foods, Reuters said about six small walnut growers will stop doing business with Diamond once their contracts expire. The growers cited Diamond's underpaying of farmers. Of the total, three said they hope to break their contract early.

But that might just be the tip of the iceberg. Reuters said the farmers knew of at least a dozen or more other farmers looking for early termination of their contracts as well. Currently, Diamond has about 1,000 suppliers, but just a few looking to exit might start a larger exodus.

One even said many farmers were furious because Diamond was paying about 25 percent below what other buyers were in 2011.

Last week, Diamond issued a release announcing an audit committee found financials for 2010 and 2011 would need to be restated due to lack of accounting for payments made to walnut growers.

Shares are about 1 percent better in early trading.