“‘We invest not for the quarter but for the quarter century,’ the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board says on its site,” Ed Lin writes for Barron’s. “The pension’s board however had no problem with making stock trades in the fourth quarter that seem a bit eager for that long timeline, including buying millions of shares General Electric, General Motors, Facebook, Apple and JPMorgan Chase.”
“Facebook’s shares have eked out a 3% gain year-to-date after last year’s 53% surge. The social network is facing legal challenges and is also being tried in the court of public opinion,” Lin writes. “The pension bought 2.1 million more shares of Facebook in the fourth quarter, lifting its stake to 7 million shares.”
“The board bought 1.5 million more Apple shares to end 2017 with 10.6 million shares,” Lin writes. “The iPhone maker saw its stock surge 48% in 2017, and they tacked on another 5% so far in 2018.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Smart move with the AAPL shares, at least.
SEE ALSO:
Warren Buffett: ‘We’ve bought more Apple than anything else’ in the last year – February 26, 2018
Apple up in early trading on Buffett’s Berkshire investment – February 15, 2018
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway increases Apple holdings by 23.3% to 165.3 million shares – February 14, 2018
It would be nice for Apple to attract more institutions with a long-term outlook. Wall Street’s quarter to quarter race is absolutely ridiculous. These analysts who keep pushing for a company to perform in double-digit gains every quarter are insane. In reality, what normal company can do that sort of thing. This investor greed that permeates Wall Street is so dangerous. America needs to think long-term and analysts urging investors to jump from company to company each quarter is counter-productive to the average investor. It might be great for the hedge funds, but absolutely harms everyone else.
I’m not sure what Apple can do to get more long-term institutions behind it but maybe higher dividends could do the trick. The tech sector is probably riskier than most sectors, so Apple may not be able to pull in institutional investors like other companies can.
I’ll tell you what long term institutional investors want: a diversified company that communicates well and explains its strategy and risks and actual performance instead of hiding all its new product sales in the “Other” category. The most preferred companies aren’t entirely reliant on one product (iphone) and have a track record showing continuous improvement across all products. Apple is a shiny consumer luxury brand. That is why everyone expects them to declines sooner rather than later. Of course the peak market value occurs years after the strategic mistakes are made. Jobs should have fired Cook instead of promoting him. Instead we’re watching complacency set in as Cook carries on his social calendar and Ive goes AWOL.