“Carl Icahn’s call for Apple to buy back more shares using a tender offer was met with skepticism by many Wall Street analysts, who questioned the activist investor’s assumptions about the company’s growth rate and the effectiveness of another big buyback,” Cadie Thompson and Josh Lipton report for CNBC. “‘There are other uses of domestic cash besides big tender offers. It’s already proven itself shareholder friendly and it doesn’t need to get painted into a corner by some flamboyant grandstanding,’ said Alex Gauna of JMP Securities.”
“Icahn’s latest buyback demand is based partially on the premise that the company’s sales will grow 80 percent over the next three years–substantially higher than recent growth–an assumption Gauna dismisses,” Thompson and Lipton report. “‘We don’t know enough about new revenue streams to say that say Apple is going to meet those targets,’ Gauna said.”
“While some analysts agree with Icahn that Apple could buy back more stock, other questioned both the timing and the effectiveness of Icahn’s communications strategy,” Thompson and Lipton report. “‘I don’t disagree with Icahn,’ said Oppenheimer’s Andrew Uerkwitz. ‘They have a ton of cash. The stock is undervalued. But Apple will not listen to him. He owns one percent of the company. This feels like an Icahn strategy to keep the momentum going on in the stock.’ George Young, manager of the Villere Balanced Fund (which owns Apple as one of its biggest holdings), thinks Icahn is ‘overly optimistic’ on the likelihood of a buyback doubling the stock’s value.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s has issued a blessedly succinct response to Icahn’s tome:
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