“Apple Inc. announced that it hired Luca Maestri, the current Chief Financial Officer at Xerox Corp. as Apple’s new corporate controller,” Zvi Bar-Kochba writes for Seeking Alpha. “Maestri was the CFO at Nokia Siemens Networks before joining Xerox in February of 2011. Xerox announced it will conduct an external search to replace Maestri, who will leave Xerox on February 28.”
“While the move from CFO to controller is a move down in title, Apple’s more substantial business makes it no step downward,” Bar-Kochba writes. “Moreover, this hire may indicate that Apple is preparing a succession plan for its CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, who has held the role since 2004. Oppenheimer was initially Apple’s controller for the Americas, after leaving Automatic Data Processing Inc. to join the tech giant.”
Bar-Kochba writes, “Maestri may also be in indicator of coming increases in share repurchasing and/or dividends. Apple continues to hold a sizable cash horde. According to Ben Reitzes of Barclays, ‘Maestri is a champion of shareholder return.’ Given Apple’s recent downturn in share valuation, an increase in its repurchase plan may help buoy shares and even prompt a new leg up… An increased repurchase plan [may be announced] at some point in the coming months, and possibly around the same time it announced the initiation of its present repurchase plan and dividend, which was on March 19 of last year. Given this recent hiring of Luca Maestri, if earnings later this month meet or beat expectations, the announcement of a dividend increase, share buyback increase, or both appear probable in before the end of the first quarter of 2013, or Apples second quarter of fiscal 2013.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Xerox CFO Luca Maestri leaves to become Apple corporate controller – January 11, 2013
Load up now on AAPL while they’re hot (and still cheap!) 🙂
Sorry. Got cut off.
However, today stock pumping dived end offers and for no reason stock buy backs are sight of a dispirate CEO. Apple has no need of this and with any luck, Cook will not go down this road.
I say leave the cheap tricks to pump stock to Ballmer. They don’t work a d just drain needed cash.
Just a thought.
First part lost —— in the old days, a dividend was a sign of a strong company Sharing good times with investors. Today it’s different…….
Dividends and buybacks are not a “trick”. When you work, would you put off all your salary for a potential larger payday when you quit/retire or do you prefer taking a regular income while continuing to grow the company?
I agree share buyback is an expensive affair. If Wall Street continues to be vindictive against Apple, it will be an exercise in futility. Better to consolidate the shares and if Wall Street continues to push down the price further, then Apple can buy back the shares more cheaply. Apple needs to regain control of its shares and prevent Wall Street from hijacking them. Less shares on the market for the time being, the better can Apple control its destiny. Make it frustratingly unrewarding for Wall Street to manipulate the shares and until it is clear that Wall Street has learnt its lesson, then Apple can slowly increase the number shares in the market through bonus issues, maybe 1 share for every 100 shares (whichever is appropriate).
‘Drain needed cash’ is relative – after a while it gets ludicrous unless the goal is to get to trillions… Like the consideration is what can’t Apple buy not what it can/wants… Some things people might not wanna sell at any price…
This would be great news if it WERE news instead of a load of Moose Poop without a shred of evidence. In other words “This is what Apple is going to do – if they do this!”
Sometimes I feel that we are read into Apple’s moves excessively.
my 2 cents…
A company re-purchase of shares is a sign that management of a company has not figured out how to grow the company through innovation or acquisition. Worse, it is typically a short-term play to buoy stock price just long enough to achieve management bonuses.
For Apple to emulate the machinations of a thoroughly corrupt Wall Street would be pathetic.
Use the cash horde to INNOVATE and INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE TO IMPROVE PRODUCT BUILD EFFICIENCY AND AVAILABILITY.
i.e., reward those who will keep Apple competitive in the future, not those brokers who merely skim off the cream of every transaction.