Wall Street's Unrealistic Expectations for Apple

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Apple has done nearly the impossible.  From nearly going out of business in 1997; they have helmed a historic turnaround and as of this last quarter have made THE MOST profit of ANY company in HISTORY.    Let that sink in for a minute, please.   Apple has made THE MOST QUARTERLY PROFIT OF ANY COMPANY IN HISTORY.    One would think that Wall Street investors would be satisfied with literally the largest profits in history.   And yet,  the Wall Street Journal today has begun the drums of expectation, not-so-subtly saying that Apple better keep up that growth curve lest they start the gloom and doom diatribe again.

I'm not really sure how anyone can expect huge growth from a company that has has already made more quarterly profit than anyone else.  Quoting from the article:

“A year ago, Apple Inc. announced disappointing iPhone sales that seemed to confirm long-simmering concerns that the company’s best days were behind it.

Now, after reporting the largest quarterly profit ever for a publicly traded company, the question about Apple is very different: How fast can it grow and for how long? More specifically, do the results Apple posted Tuesday reflect a short-term blip driven by the company’s first larger-display phones or are they the start of a new growth trajectory?”
— http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-apple-keep-up-its-growth-spurt-1422493028?tesla=y

I don't pretend to understand Wall Street, but this obsession with growth over anything is anything but healthy.   I understand that investors want the stock they invested in to go up, but to what end?   I am starting to think that if Apple literally took in every last bit of money in the world, the next day's headlines would be about how Apple's "best days are behind them".

I have to give Tim Cook and Apple a LOT of credit.   Managing the expectations of these lunatics has to be like herding cats.   The fact that they've been able to do it so well for so long is a miracle.  Maybe some investors will realize that making such ridiculous profits will mean that in fact the company they invested in is not actually going out of business tomorrow...

Maybe not.