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I have never been able to understand AAPL's valuation and strange price movement (relative to comparable stocks).

They aren't transparent and don't have a public road map. There, I just summed it up for you. If you want to know why, that's exactly why. Not some tin foil hat conspiracy that everyone hates Apple or that the government is out to screw with them.
 
What makes me angry about this story is not the profit Icahn has made. There are plenty of greedy bastards on Wall Street. No, what makes me mad is how much money Apple have wasted on share buybacks to please this guy and his mates. That is a criminal waste of money. It could have been spent on long term investments that would have bolstered the share price long term. Think of all the companies they could have bought with that money and how that would have added to their bottom line profits. Or they could have just given it away to charity. Steve Jobs wanted to change the world - that money could have eradicated Malaria across the world. Now that would be a legacy to be proud of.

Apple is not a charity and does not have to do those things. And it does many civic minded activities anyway. Apple didn't do anything to satisfy Icahn and Wall Street. It did buy backs for its shareholders which mainly include ordinary and normal well to do folk who own diversified portfolio of stocks through their retirement and other accounts; not only or even in a majority the Wall Street titans. That is how the vast majority of US public shares are owned. Even the $2 billion that Icahn references is nothing to do with what he made. He made his investors $2 billion, but those investor are numerous.

The buybacks are reasonable uses of capital. Apple already is so busy it can't get around to refreshing something as simple as the Mac Mini. And it continues to have plenty of cash and so is able to do any long term investments that it wishes to do. It just can't come up with any additional ones that make sense. So tons of cash continues to sit around.

And buying far less profitable companies at a premium which is what would have happened if Apple had bought something like Twitter or Yahoo is not going to add to the bottom line.
 
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You're asking these questions because you don't understand the stock market.

A lot of the stock is based on a company's potential to sell in the future. Apple has been losing ground to other companies since last year. There is also no hope of innovation in the near future with Mrs. Cook at the helm of the company. The only items we've seen is a stalling Apple Pay roll out, a mediocre watch which isn't doing very well in sales, and a failure in Apple Music.

The only way Apple's stock is going to go up again is if you see Tim Cook act like a visionary inventor, which isn't going to happen. If you own APPL stock sell it now. It was down $6 a share yesterday, and now $3 a share today.

The Apple Watch might not be selling in huge numbers, (although we don't know as Apple don't release sales numbers), however it is selling better than anyone else's smart watch. Apple pays role out continues, I see fairly regular reports on this site about those. It can't be easy though having to deal with individual banks and payment processors. As to innovation, I'm not sure what people expect; there was a 6 year gap between the iPod (2001) and the iPhone (2007), then 3 years till the iPad (2010). So in the last 15 years they've released 3 innovative, market leading devices. Maybe, maybe they're slightly overdue for something else big but, if they are, it's only just. Also, those examples don't include anything from the Mac range, such as the MacBook Air or iMac.

Whilst the stock market does indeed look to future growth it's also rather slow to recognise when that growth is unreasonable. The stock price at the moment appears to being punished for failing, yet again, to live up to analysts expectations, despite the fact those expectations where unreasonable and were, in fact higher than Apples own guidance. In context Apples sales this quarter were comparitively poor, in large part because the iPhone 6 sold in record numbers.

Apples stock also routinely went down after earnings calls when Steve Jobs was at the helm. Steve was a visionary though, there's no doubt about that, he was irreplaceable really, his feel for quality and user friendliness was without compare and still is. Therefor comparing Tim to him is pointless, there's no one else in the industry that is even close to Cook let alone Jobs in terms of ability to run Apple and no one else running a company as successful as Apple is right now. So if Cook is doing poorly, who would Apple replace him with?
 
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What makes me angry about this story is not the profit Icahn has made. There are plenty of greedy bastards on Wall Street. No, what makes me mad is how much money Apple have wasted on share buybacks to please this guy and his mates. That is a criminal waste of money. It could have been spent on long term investments that would have bolstered the share price long term. Think of all the companies they could have bought with that money and how that would have added to their bottom line profits. Or they could have just given it away to charity. Steve Jobs wanted to change the world - that money could have eradicated Malaria across the world. Now that would be a legacy to be proud of.

I think you are forgetting who owns who in this situation. Being a public company Apple belongs to share holders and thus has to do what they want (and not what Tim Cook or any other employee wants). It sounds like you are unhappy with capitalism.
 
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For billionaires, it seems to be the thrill of playing with big numbers, not being able to afford a new iPhone every year.
 
I didnt know who this guy was and googled his name but ended up on a wikipedia entry about greed.

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carl_icahn_potrait-250x379.jpg
Billionaire Carl Icahn, who has been buying large amounts of Apple stock over the past three years, today told CBNC that he sold his stake in the company.Icahn, who sold his shares earlier this year, said that he did so based on worries over China's attitude towards Apple. Earlier this month, the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television forced Apple to take down the iTunes Movies and iBooks stores, and Chinese officials believe that Apple is "too deeply established" in core industries in the country.

Apple sales also fell 26 percent in greater China in the second quarter of 2016.Prior to exiting his position, Icahn held 0.8 percent of outstanding shares. He told CNBC that he made approximately $2 billion on Apple and that he continues to view the stock as "cheap."

Apple shares have been on the decline since Tuesday's earnings call, where the company announced its first ever drop in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year revenue drop in 13 years. Apple stock is down approximately 2 percent today.

Article Link: Investor Carl Icahn Dumps Apple Shares Over China Concerns
Now the money is starting to talk maybe Apple will listen instead of constantly trying to convince themselves about the dreadful aberration the company has morphed into. You can feel the elevator shifting, the nose tilting towards the ground and Apple executives thinking about parachutes. We will be left in the pieces.
 
This.
What's the next big thing for the iPhone besides "thinner / worse battery"?
What's the roadmap for the iPad besides "treat it like a big iPhone with a pencil"? They refuse to do a proper tablet OS. Tim Cook has gone on record saying the iPad is the future of personal computing – okay, then why are you still doing Mac OS? Where are your balls to commit? Steve Jobs killed other product lines for less. I would hate if they did this, but it just goes to show they don't any direction and are afraid to commit – which is killing us slowly with mediocrity.

Unfortunately they will commit by removing the headphone jack.
I am dead serious, they need a big shake up and Cook (if he stays) has to let everyone know that nobody is untouchable. nobody, Ive included.
 
Made a boatload of money and then jumped ship. SHIP! Fair-weather investor. This is what's wrong with the market, speculators who drive the price of everything we buy. Not any different than the oil speculators.
 
It's not that easy nor simple to do...
You are right, it would not be easy. But if the started with some lines, it would be a huge threat. Also labor in India is cheaper than China. In the long run with the mountains of cash Apple has it could be done. The plus be dealing with a much more friendly government to business and to the U.S. I know all manufacturing can't be move to the U.S. but some would be good both for our job situation here and great P.R. as well.
 
All these doom and gloom articles on Apple, I.e. Revenue decline, iPad Deflation, Apple Watch decline, a tragic dear in Cupertino, now shares being sold. Anything positive today on Apple? What's next, Tim Cook resigns?
To Apple's credit, they've ridden a wave of hype for years. Complacency was bound to set in, temping them to coast while engaged in serious profit taking.

Now it's time to get back to business. If Apple applies themselves they can right the ship. If they choose denial they'll have an even bigger problem to manage.
 
Apples stock also routinely went down after earnings calls when Steve Jobs was at the helm.

That is not the problem. We knew that stocks were going down "but new iPhone and iPads are going to fix it through sales in the long run".
Now we don't have this "hope".
 
I came so close to selling at $112 to cut some of my losses. I bought in at $92 in 2014, ran up to around $132 and then sold part at $128, then bought in bigger around $117 in October 2015 only to have it go down from there. How in the hell has AAPL lost nearly 20% of their value in only two weeks?? I've been really busy trying to sell my house and find a new one so it's been hard to track all the analysis. Not sure if I should keep holding on or dump it and take a bigger loss. It took a big swing up from $92 to $112, but I'm not sure if it will do that again anytime soon. Everyone is just crapping all over this stock right now because they only had tens of billions in profit. Meanwhile companies like Amazon barely make any profit (and often lose money) and yet they're fine. Freaking pisses me off. Hopefully the $92 floor holds because this stock has a lot of potential. Apple even shored up an opportunity to open stores across India today and they still don't care. I think as soon as I get back to breaking even I'm gonna dump their stock. It's just too volatile for my taste. At least they're increasing their meager dividends.
 
Yeap, this is a sign of things that may come. Seems to be the Chinese government may pressure Apple to not use Foxconn so much then? And you don't want to annoy them as they do what they like, I believe they still imprison and torture those who openly oppose them.
I think China has Apple over the proverbial barrel.

Just move the manufacturing plants to another cheap wage place.. Africa?
Without the west, china's economy would collapse.
 
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