[widgeon13]

Your point is valid. What it boils down to is "this is the way it's done", not necessarily right or wrong.

Apple is a good example because their performance has been so good over the last couple of years and stock price has gone up, no one in the company or the financial arena wants to say the end is here, once that happens the bottom drops out of the stock. Technical innovation and timely delivery to the market are what drive a company like Apple. A natural resource or more industrial company (paper industry) are more driven by actual supply/demand and pricing.

Once Apple is not seen as a leader in technological innovation (when they can no longer deliver new products) they will fall from glory and stock price will drop. Nothing lasts forever.