Jim Cramer: Arrogance of Apple’s management is what hurts AAPL shareholders the most

“Apple (AAPL) took a 63 point nosedive after management reported earnings. Cramer doesn’t think it was the declining gross margins or questions about market share that hurt the company the most, but the arrogance of management, which gave analysts the impression that the company doesn’t need to justify itself [via Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program on CNBC, Thursday January 24.],” Miriam Metzinger reports for Seeking Alpha.

“Cramer thinks that Apple is resting on its laurels because of its past greatness, and the once-growth company is now becoming more of a value stock; ‘Perhaps the guys at Apple don’t even care,'” Metzinger reports. “Cramer issued an open memo to Apple: Do something with your cash. Apple could be helped with a buyback, a dividend or an acquisition, but he doesn’t see much upside in the stock for the short term.”

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Drew Sandholm reports for CNBC, “To Jim Cramer, Apple management better see this as a wakeup call. After all, Apple is the world’s biggest publicly traded company, but Cramer thinks the corporate governance isn’t acting like it. ‘Apple’s management needs to realize what everyone else has: that it’s a regular public company like any other, especially since the death of its founder, Steve Jobs,’ Cramer said. ‘And until it either stops being public or trades through its cash, management is going to have do a much better job of explaining itself.'”

“Apple currently has about $137 billion in cash on hand and Cramer thinks it’s outrageous the company has no plans to put that money to work. He suggested Apple’s management start an aggressive stock buyback program or offer a massive dividend boost. If management fails to tack such actions, though, Cramer fears things won’t be looking up for shareholders,” Sandholm reports. “If Apple’s corporate leaders don’t act soon, Cramer thinks shareholders will likely suffer more pain.”

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