“As Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook takes the stage at this year’s shareholder meeting, he may not get the reception he received in 2012, when investors lauded the company’s performance and rising shares” Adam Satariano reports for Bloomberg.
“The annual event, where holders will vote on re-electing board members, takes place today at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California,” Satariano reports. “In this year’s run-up, the company has been enmeshed in a public spat over distribution of its $137.1 billion in cash and investments with hedge-fund manager David Einhorn, who advocates a bigger payout, using preferred shares.”
Satariano reports, “A central criticism among shareholders is the money accumulated by Apple, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. Investors want a bigger slice of the cash hoard that has grown over a half decade amid surging sales of iPhones and iPads.”
Read more in the full article here.
Perhaps Apple should setup a venture capital fund for startups with a few of their billions instead of just giving it away to greedy investors.
I think that would be a great move.
Greedy ? Apple isn’t a charity
Lol. Its pretty easy to spot the people who dont own shares isnt it?
Venture capital is charity?
It’s about future growth not fattening a couple of greedy investors like Einhorn.
“Investors want a bigger slice of the cash hoard that has grown over a half decade”
No, not investors – carpet baggers. There are many investors such as myself who have held AAPL for many years and we do not want Apple to distribute it’s cash for the benefit of greedy hedge fund managers.
There are many investors such as myself who have held AAPL for many years who do want Apple to distribute it’s cash for the benefit of us long term shareholders.
I want Apple to use that cash to muscle in on those companies that are squeezing Apple’s genitals to death. I’d do without added dividends for another year just to see Apple step on Google’s and Netflix’s toes. Why won’t Apple go head to head with anyone with all that spare cash? Send those punks, that Wall Street worships so much, a message that they just can’t take over Apple’s territory without a fight.
Im starting to wonder if they really know what they want to do with the cash. Hopefully we get a clue today.
I echo your sentiments and Apple isn’t Wall Street’s nemesis for nothing.
Tim,
We need an Apple moment .
We need a iPhone 5s announcement.
Anything that will do it
Cash should be used to undercut the price and wipe out competition.
It’s very difficult to raise prices once you have established value. Instead, cuts are made: A one-pound box of graham crackers is no longer a full pound, a half-gallon carton of orange juice is now 59.5 oz., heck, a box of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies is now down to 9 oz. and there’s a lot of air inside the bag “for packaging purposes.”
But since it sure would be gratifying to go a few quarters of decimating Samsung shipment estimates against iPhone sales, maybe Apple could put the money into SPIFs at the carrier stores to get those confident sales people to confidently promote the Apple products over the competition.
There’s a young guy in my office that has a Mac and was debating getting an iPhone 5 but got a Samsung Note because it was on sale cheap at Costco. Apple can afford to drop the price below Samsung for a while. Microsoft did that years ago to undercut competition; then when the competition died, they raised prices. But Samsung has deep pockets too, I guess.
Investors wouldn’t be screaming to get their share if they believed Apple’s stock would skyrocket again.
Whether winning or losing, all racehorses should be humanely put to pasture after 4 years.
every time Tim Cook talks, AAPL drops, will today be different ?
No. Whenever Tim Cook speaks, it’s a negative for Apple shareholders. All that damn cash and Apple is made a laughingstock by the likes of Google and Netflix. I honestly don’t get it. Apple has the cash value of a handful of large corporations and they can’t even go up against some tiny company like Netflix. Apple shareholders are dead meat with Tim Cook running the show. How can such a wealthy company be so freaking weak to get bullied by everyone?
Buy Yahoo, update all its servers with the latest tech and go directly after Google. I don’t think Google would be going directly to $900 with a wealthy challenger taking chunks out of its ass. Apple needs some affirmative action instead of just standing still and getting groin-kicked by every Tom, Dick and Harry company. Show Wall Street it’s not taking any more smack. Every time I think of Google having twice the share price of Apple, I cringe because it makes no sort of sense.
Apple Corporation should buy back all outstanding stock from David Einhorn. He has not earned a cent from Apple and is the epitome of why Wall Street hates success gained not on its terms.
We have seen brokers and money managers try anything to move the market or get hold of cash. Yesterday’s blatant fomenting on a potential stock split is a great example.
The lawsuit was a bullying tactic to get Apple to move more of the cash into shareholders hands. If a fund manager will a million shares can get an additional 2-4 bucks per quarter out of Apple then it will improve their yield. Obviously they want it in preferred shares so that they can cash in as soon as possible.
I would prefer to get an increase in dividends since at least you have to own the stock on the ex-dividends dates to get the cash.
I’d like to see a additional dividend for all share holders of record one day before Einhorn bought.
As AAPL gets cheaper, it becomes a greater lure for pirates and raiders to buy in cheap and start hacking their way to the hoard. Right now the market cap is only 2.8 times the cash holdings! The lower the stock price goes, and the closer the market cap comes to the cash amount, the less protected the hoard will be from these raiders. Maybe this downward manipulation of the stock is all about this big heist?
If thats the case then a 10 for 1 split would be a good answer.
“You got some ‘splaining to do, Tim” (insert Desi Arnaz accent).
I say Tim should cut them off. No more dividends, until the madness stops.
Apple should go private. Then it can do what it does best, build kick ass products, and stop the tedium of Wallstreet.
Apple should go private. They generate their own revenue and don’t need greedy investors. Wall Street is full of crap.
“Investors want a bigger slice of the cash hoard”
Perhaps they will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Greed takes many forms and it leads to the greatest irrationalities.