“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
I did not read the article. It’s so dumb from the few paragraphs I can’t even start.
well lets blame somebody even if they had nothing to do with it. Heads must roll ,analysts go on about how the c phone is not selling as well as the s (until actual numbers come out) opinions abound, nervous investors are further panicked by scalpers. institutions bid it down and load up and its all cooks fault ! he spreads the rumors and squeezes the stops .
the dividend yeild compared to bonds is moot as well lets bring back Gil Amilio he had his pulse on the market!
Markos Kaminis and SeekingAlpha have won the prestigious idiots of the day award.
This is the whole point of the WS shysters. They want their man in there.
Look for the Washington post to have lots of critical articles and news against apple.
The new carnival barkers want to pillage the company. The bozo, the climate credit czar (company drummed up as a successful electric car innovator), Eric the mole and many other Barnum & baileys are salivating. The payola fund is so huge.
Cook should see this. If I were him, do dividends not buybacks. This will screw the shysters. Also split the stock 10 (20) to 1.
Also, too not be surprised if one Monday morning the great oracle will be on CNBC. The conversation will for this way ‘you got me Becky , I just bought gazillions of apple stock’ probably also call options. He will make a few billions on that day.
I think Microsoft needs a lot more help finding the right CEO than Apple does.
Most of Apple’s stock problems have been ’caused’ by analcysts and wall st manipulators!
The stock was/is/will be manipulated to suit the options market. Too may people got burned last year because of brokerages holding large lots of aapl stock and manipulating the price at will. I’d call it large scale collusion amongst stockbrokers. Probably illegal. But very hard to catch. The stock will continue to be lackluster as retail investors stay wary of the scumbags on Wall Street.
It’s too bad really. Apple is a great company. Wall Street on the other hand is run by complete a-holes.
Steve knew Tim was quite different from himself. An everlasting house is not built by artisans of the same talent. Some lay foundations, some build superstructure, others are cabinetmakers. There is a time for each to apply their own expertise. A truly remarkable house is built for the owner – not by the owner.
Um… in my opinion, TC is doing a fine job and there’s no reason to feel he needs to be ousted. The markets are out of his control. Journalism at its finest — basing stories on half-truths, rumors, and inaccuracies. I’m glad Markos Kaminis isn’t a lawyer, but probably a daytrader.
Seeking Alpha, the new. Onion!
Are writers like Kaminis even capable of using brain cells?
Thank God someone like Kaminis isn’t in charge of Apple!
I like Tim Cook, he is doing an excellent job, keep up the good work.
The author is an athyrodic, click bait, imbecile.
athyrodic now theres a 5 dollar word!!!
androgyny recapitulates phylogeny!
Today I learned that “Markos Kaminis” is a moron that nobody needs to take seriously.
-jcr
Lol, what a dweeb…….
There are 100bn reasons to ignore this article. They are there as a barrier to safeguard the company from short term marketeers – by design.
A policy created by SJ for just this reason.
Yes, Cook needs to step down before Apple get more rotten! He had little clue to run this used to be the coolest innovative technology leadership company. A few things that he really lacks of beside no innovative brain, which includes poor taste (look at how unartistic iOS 7 looks with fat opaque bar at the bottom, poor taste apps icon design, eg. Setting icons; ugly looking iPhone 5C, really Cheapskate, that’s what C really stands for), poor talents management skill (sacrificing a few key assets, including maps guy, yet maps still unresolved, check for yourself how badly stitched is the China Maps besides getting you lost for some direction navigations).
The profits are still good but Cook is about as dynamic as a garden slug.
Let’s bring in Donald Trump! He’s a dynamic slug,
Apple’s spokesperson is their products! If you do not use them,,,you are deaf as a doorknob.
The only problem with Apple stock is that there was a speculator boom in 2012 that artificially made the price prematurely rise into the stratosphere, which caused an artificial lowering in 2013 as investors shied away. The rebounding from all that nonsense is now obviously apparent and everything is now fine and nearly back on track to where it should be.
Apple is the world’s most valuable company. That’s called winning. Do we fire the Superbowl winning coach because he didn’t win by enough points? The premiss of the article is crap.
Apple is less innovative since Jobs death? I really don’t see it. Although one has to think that Jobs’s hand was still in the products we are seeing today to a great extent.
1-iPad Air
2-iPhone 5s
3-Mac Pro
4-Current iMac
5-iPod Touch
6-Time Capsule 2
All this and much more has happened since Steve’s departure from this earth. So frankly, in my opinion, Apple is doing just fine without Steve. But this is testimony as to his true genius. His leadership was so good that it still permiates Apple corporate culture to the point that it is still the same without him, and quite frankly, he was a visionary, but the innovation came from somewhere else (Ive’s Team). If Jobs chose Cook to lead Apple, it was for a very good reason.
Where is the comment sections for Seeking Alpha articles?
Please spare me this BS.
Another paid basher writing garbage .
By far, the most stupid article I ever read. Who ever hire these nuts to write?
I could say that there is a one word answer…NO… Or a two words answer…Hell No!… Or even a four word answer…That Does Not Compute…But I won’t. He is not Steve Jobs, that is probably good. The Steve Jobs that came back to Apple after the Board of Directors fired him was not the same Steve Jobs who founded the company with two other friends. The reinvented history of Apple is amazing. It seems that the reinvented Apple and it’s founder did no wrong and was perfect in every way. Fairy tales do come true.