“Did you sense a certain note of urgency in Tim Cook’s holiday message to employees this year?” Markos Kaminis writes for SeekingAlpha. “I suspect that investors other than Carl Icahn might be murmuring something similar to the tune that turned taboo into truth at Microsoft this past summer. Maybe even because of the imminent change at Microsoft, calls for a change atop Apple (AAPL) might not be long in coming.”
“Apple’s stock performance has been below par since the death of Steve Jobs, and I think many would agree that there’s been a less innovative energy about the company since then as well,” Kaminis writes. “The stock’s valuation certainly shows a less confident outlook among investors. While none of it may be the fault of Tim Cook, who sure seems to me to be a genuine good spirit and leader, it still could lead impatient investors to call for a change in leadership without a quick shift in all of the above at Apple.”
“AAPL has appreciated at a dividend adjusted 53% since October 5, 2011, the day Steve Jobs died,” Kaminis writes. “That seems to show the company did not skip a beat. It does, anyway, until you compare its performance to that of rival Google or even the PowerShares QQQ, which is modeled to match the Nasdaq. Even Microsoft , which has struggled mightily to keep pace with its burgeoning competitors, has outperformed Apple since that tragic day in 2011… In my view, Tim Cook probably has a little more time to show shareholders that his leadership can return the capital appreciation that Apple investors had grown accustomed to… Still, it seems as though Cook will have to follow through in 2014 on the kind of amazing year he spoke about to employees in his holiday message. That is because investors, however enamored with Apple’s history, should be expected to exhibit a show me mentality and a focus on the present with money on the line today.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last February:
“Those who underestimate Tim Cook do so at their own peril.”
Related article:
Tim Cook memo to Apple employees: We have ‘big plans’ for 2014 that ‘customers are going to love’ – December 23, 2013
oh for crying out loud. really?
MDN only links to this article to support its homophobic agenda.
Sounds like you’re feeling persecuted.
Uh, it appears MDN supports Cook, a homosexual. Not because of his lifestyle, but they seem to believe in his vision and business acumen. I’m not seeing it, but it’s their world and we just comment on it. So your statement makes no sense. I’m 100% against Apple’s politics and pricing, but they got the best shit around and I’m buying it…and I don’t care if chinese fairies build that shit, either.
“Experts” who say they remember “Apple history” often seem to forget that APPL fell from over $200 to under $80… and that was with Steve Jobs as CEO. That’s a much bigger drop (as a percentage) than over $700 to under $400.
People who truly remember history (in terms of AAPL price) know that, after dipping below $80, it was back up to around $200 by the start of 2010, then around $400 by the start of 2012. And now, at the start of 2014, I expect it will be around $600 soon. There’s a lot of “noise” in between, but the long-term investor should look at “history” and see (and expect) a steady climb (on average).
Some of my AAPL shares are up 4000%. It’s not going 40x from today’s price, during the next 15 years. If it did, Apple would probably be worth more than entire world’s money supply. So, if that’s the history this particular “expert” remembers and wants to see repeated, then Tim Cook will fail, because impossible things don’t happen (even for Apple). I’m perfectly happy with a steady climb, where (on average) AAPL is up about $100 per year while paying healthy dividends.
It’s time for Markos Kaminis to leave Seeking Alpha.
This article appears to be way off the mark. There is not another genius waiting in the wings to take over at Apple. A Steve Jobs comes around once in a generation if that. Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs but he is one of the best possible non-Steve choices Apple could have made. Apple has many very bright people on their team but none are another Steve Jobs. You simply can’t capture lightning in a bottle on command. They need allow the current leadership to mature further and it has done quite well to date. Enough of the silly talk.
Gotta be kidding me again!
Same old sh|t over and over gain…Cook no good for Apple and Apple is doomed.
Dont you find it strange that when ever Apple farts it causes all US tech companies and everyone in else in Asia of any technological notoriety to come sniffin?
Steve Jobs hand picked Tim Cook to succeed him. I just love how all these arm chair quarterbacks think they are more capable of doing this than Jobs himself.
Satisfy and take care of your customers and the rest will take care of itself. Start playing with the financials and end will be near.
I read this article this morning. I shutdown ALL of my Apple gear and now I return to the same headline.
Wallshit needs it’s collective heads examined. OH! btw AAPL is DOOMED!
Because they f….n are nuts without brain but thinks they knows everythinh. Brainless people.
I would point out that jobs, Cook and crew built Apple the juggernaut together. That’s not pollyannish BS, Cook took on a key role from early on in this latter day incarnation of Apple and crafted much of its operational excellence. That’s commonly known. And he assumed the CEO role for brief stints during the time that is credited to Jobs.
But that’s not what this is about. Icahn is using his old tried-n-true business model of “corporate activism” to badger or scare a company into actions that benefit him the most. It’s perfectly legal (“That’s a nice CEO office you have there – a shame if something happened to it…”)
And let’s hope, perfectly stale.
One more “analyst” to ignore in 2014
I read that as ANAL-yst.
Consider the source: Seeking Alpha. If you want to be a self-anointed analyst, just post to their site. That’s it. Nothing else is required. You could be 35, still living at home with your parents, too much of a loser to move out of the basement or get a date, but you can still be an “analyst” for Seeking Alpha, and have your name splashed all over the Web.
Never mind the fact that you know absolutely nothing, that your “facts” are complete fiction and have no proof to back them up. The more sensational your accusations, the better. This, ladies and gentlemen, madames et monsieurs, is Seeking Alpha, the Bleacher Report of Wall Street. A collection of complete amateurs, a bag of hot air. A place where opinions masquerade as fact.
MEMO TO MDN: please, please, please, don’t feed these trolls with clicks. Please stop using Seeking Alpha as a source for articles, regardless of whether the postings are positive on Apple or not. The writers are uninformed, and do nothing to help the company’s stock valuation. Please, please use reputable sources. Thank you.
Yes, the moment he offended half of America with his Hollywood liberal gay agenda power play to influence Supreme Court! No sensible business man would alienate Christians to forward a personal agenda. He needs to go!
Get over yourself.
Excellent sarcastic post.
Time to clean that Santorum coming out of your butt.
No.
Mr. Cook expertise is managing unique and complex processes to produce unique and complex devices in extremely high volumes.
This is nearly unique and it is complex.
They don’t have to kick him out of Apple but just transfer him to a more suitable position to whatever he was doing before he became the CEO. For a new CEO they could get someone that knows how to run a company that has an overabundance of unused cash. Even Tim Cook has to admit he doesn’t know how to put shareholder into Apple after he had to forfeit some of his own salary.
When a CEO can’t convince big investors to buy into a highly visible and highly profitable company flush with cash, then something is very wrong. Apple should at least be more attractive to investors than say, companies like Twitter and Facebook but Tim Cook can’t convey something that simple.
“Whatever he was doing before he became CEO”? Really? You call yourself and Apple investor and don’t know that he was formerly the COO? REALLY?!!!!!!
You are so full of self serving BS
Somebody’s authored article count for 2013 was one shy of “meets expectations”
How idiotic. It’s obvious Cook is doing a great job. It’s the analysts and press who should be formally executed.
With no last cigarette or meal either.
DEVELOPERS!! DEVELOPERS!!DEVELOPERS!!DEVELOPERS!!DEVELOPERS!!DEVELOPERS!!DEVELOPERS!!
I would like any of these geniuses to give some insight into what the f**k else Tim Cook can deliver that would make any of the a**holes on wall street happy. Profits are good, sales are good, he is returning $100 million to shareholders already (something that the now deified Steve Jobs would NEVER have done).
Unfortunately he maybe is someone that Wall Street can’t tolerate, as he does not spew bulls**t very well like his competitors can. I don’t think the analysts can deal with any company that actually tells the truth.
Microsoft: “surface sales are going great” (until they announce’d that they weren’t)
Samsung: “We sold 800,000 galaxy gear watches” (except they didn’t)
Amazon: “We will be profitable” (one day far, far away), and “we’ll ship by drones” (except the FAA will never allow them to)
And…
Google: Each time Schmidt makes a sound.
No new product lines barely noticeable improvements of current product lines. He hasn’t embraced the pro market horribly slow turnout of the Mac Pro. I don’t see any kind of echo system coming together while how much of the marketshare has been given up to android? you’re kidding me we need somebody who’s got some balls. If you don’t own any stock why even be in this conversation. I can think of many different markets Apple should have been in.
“Echo system” ??? Really?
Is it time for Markos Kaminis to stop pretending he’s a writer?
In what alternate universe is 53% appreciation since Steve’s death sub par? That is still more than 25% YOY The only thing sub par is the hit whoring so called journalism that creates its own history rather than just reporting facts. Maybe if there were fewer hacks like this than AAPL would not be nearly as held back as it has been… The bigger the lie the more people will believe it after all, correct?
Time for him to leave Apple?
I’ve got 2:17 PM Pacific Time by my watch.
What is he got banker’s hours?
I’m confused…..
Yawn. This comes up as often as the Apple death knell.
Boring day?
I’m so sick of these short-sighted fools whose only focus is on the stock market. Nothing about the quality of the company, products, innovation, just the f’g stock market current price. It’s time to tell them all to get lost.
What a fscking idiot.
Succinctly put. Bravo!
This old unoriginal cliche and retardedly analyzed chestnut has got to die NOW.