“In my previous life, I worked in sales for a software company,” Micahel K. Dawson explains. “Our sales conferences were in some of the most beautiful places in the world. Knowing that we would be stuck in windowless conference rooms from sunup to sundown, we would always get to the location a few days ahead of time to enjoy the lay of the land. If we had been in Newark, no one would have cared, but being in Hawaii and knowing that the perfect day was only a few steps away was torture. That must be how non-Apple shareholders have felt over the last 10+ years.”
“Apple has been an institutional stock favorite and has rewarded growth investors handsomely. Value investors are finally getting a crack, as Apple’s valuation has been compressed due to Wall Street’s disbelief that a company of its size can continue growing earnings and revenue at such a clip,” Dawson writes. “Practically all classes of investors have had an opportunity to enjoy the sunshine, except fund managers restricted to investing only in dividend-paying stocks. Now that shareholder-unfriendly Steve Jobs has died, it’s time for a dividend ‘darn it!'”
Dawson writes, “Not very many companies have the capacity or the know-how to think at such a high strategic level [as Apple], so they simply do the expected – use excess cash to buy back stock or pay a dividend. Unfortunately, Apple’s stock price is paying a price (compressed P/E) for not being ordinary. That being said, the stock is near its all-time high, and other than the Apple non-shareholders, not many are complaining. I expect that [buyback/dividend] proposal[s] will get very little support at the annual shareholders meeting.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]