Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ), Apple Inc. (AAPL) & Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) – Life After Death: The Tablet and the PC

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Good news for HP?

If there is hope for HP, it lies in its recent partnership with Leap Motion. While I believe Leap Motion’s gesture control technology may do very well, I don’t know if it can return Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) to its prior glory. It will, however, allow contactless interaction for the first time. HP is currently including Leap Motion devices with some of its products, and will later integrate the systems into their actual devices. Depending on the success of this approach, it may help slow the decline of PC sales, but I wouldn’t expect the sales to increase.

Bad news for HP

The bad news appears obvious. PC sales are decreasing, tablets are rising, and the worst part for HP is, most people don’t replace a PC until it stops working. This is not the case with tablets. Many people are intrigued by these mobile devices and buy a new one every year, regardless of whether or not they are broken.

Valuation

With Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) being such a young company (19 years old), many of its metrics are skewed because it’s still rapidly growing. Much of its money goes directly into capital expenditures, which is what you want for a company with so much room to run. These companies show a pretty drastic differences in some areas of valuation.

In terms of free cash flow yields, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) leads the pack, followed by HP, and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). These companies earnings yields also differ drastically as Apple is around 10%, while Amazon and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) are negative. Is it surprising that Apple shows the highest free cash flow yield and hands down the highest earnings yield? They do generate approximately 80% of their revenues from mobile products.

Dividends

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will be releasing $100 billion to its shareholders by 2015, and currently has a dividend yield above 2.5%. Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ)’s dividend yield is near 2.0%. Again, one of the most active companies in the mobile world has the best dividend yield. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is yet to issue a dividend.

The foolish bottom line

No one knows what the future holds. But, after looking it over, investors might want to take a second look at Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ). Amazon is not a bargain, but it’s still a young company that’s growing very quickly. Meanwhile, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is largely involved in mobile sales, and still offers a great value to its shareholders. You be the judge. Which company will die first and which company will rise up to take its place.

Tyler Wofford has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).com and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com and Apple.

The article Life After Death: The Tablet and the PC originally appeared on Fool.com.

Tyler is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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