Investor Carl Icahn Dumps Apple Shares Over China Concerns

[TallManNY]

Icahn has a point that China may engage in protectionist strategies to protect its local handset manufacturers. The SE is really going to put a hurting on them. And Apple can drop the price of the 6s and the 7 by a $100 and still make a great profit while squeezing local manufacturers which are presumably struggling to make a profit like all the other Android manufacturers other than Samsung.

Also China is going to have more and more issues as Apple makes greater profits through Services including App store sales. China intentionally allows copyright violations so that its citizens can get content made in the West at cheap prices that its Citizens can afford. The App store doesn't allow that circumvention.

 

[Larry-K]

Who should he care about? Me? You? Eddie Cue? Who?

Nope, he should only care about himself, that way somebody does.

People shouldn't expect his actions to be in anybody else's interest.

 

[MrGuder]

Trump says he wants Apple to start making it's products in the U.S.A. perhaps Carl Icahn believes the same idea should happen. This is major major news that he has sold his interest in Apple.

 

[senseless]

Put aside the euphoria and accept Apple as a blue chip company with steady sales and good profits. It's no longer the upstart mega growth stock it used to be. The short term risk is all those folks sitting on huge gains collectively deciding to cash out whenever the share price bounces a little.

 

[Jimmy James]

There he is again, looking at the photographers red dot on the ceiling.

 

[Naaaaak]

This is what's wrong with the market, speculators who drive the price of everything we buy. Not any different than the oil speculators.

Speculators are not a problem. If you buy something and hope for it to go up in value, guess what? You're a speculator. You are speculating that it will increase in value and allow you to sell to someone else, not unlike Icahn. I'd guess most casual stock market participants think this way and are in fact, speculators. That's a complete difference from INVESTORS who are market participants who value dividends, cash flow, and a protection of capital.

Speculation is always a short-term game. Speculative bubbles, like oil or real-estate (in recent history), always work themselves out. The most speculative participants tend to lose their ass because they rarely see the end coming. Thus, vilifying speculators and blaming them for driving up the price of things is incorrect.

What drives up the price of everything we buy over the long-term is inflation and a refusal of governments and central banks to let asset prices drop. The fiscal policies of the US government over the last 16 years are a complete screw job to savers and people making moderate earnings.

 

[nicho]

Jonathan Ive for CEO, just my opinion.

They'll need a stronger stage.

 

[5105973]

Whoever invests $2B in Apple today, will make many more billions of dollars within a short time. Here it comes.

Okay let me go dig around and see what's trapped in the sofa cushions.

 

[kas23]

Jonathan Ive for CEO, just my opinion.

I don't know if it's Tim Cook's fault or the army of employees under him, but I'm not sure Jonathan Ive would be doing anything different. The problem is they have an empty pipeline. If they didn't, there would at least be hints of something coming (since Apple apparently can't keep secrets anymore), but there's not.

 

[Junior117]

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?

I'm sure some people would be celebrating with cake...

... okay: what's with me and cake this week?

Jonathan Ive for CEO, just my opinion.

Wasn't there an article saying he doesn't want to do that? Didn't it say he's too shy? Because if that's the case, i don't know how they'll convince him to be CEO.

 

[colbertnation]

Another quarter where AAPL made billions in revenue and turned out billions in net profit...time to dump the stock, watch the price plunge, and go running for the hills!

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

It's because stock markets and stock prices are forward looking. You may be doing well now, but that doesn't mean you'll be raking in profits next year.

The reason P/E valuations of Alphabet or Facebook are higher than Apple despite lower dollar figure profits is because investors think they have tremendous growth potential compared to Apple, and so want to buy/hold on to a growth stock.

AAPL, according to investors and traders, seems to have peaked and may well be on the decline in terms of profits and revenue it takes in. And many investors don't want to buy/hold on to a stock that won't grow, unless it was being bought back by the company. Your opinion may be different, but the stock price reflects the general opinion.
[doublepost=1461889326][/doublepost]

Fixed the headline for you:

"Carl Icahn Pumps and Dumps AAPL And Makes $2 billion."

The Wall Street garbage I've read today is making me feel like the entire world has gone insane.

I'm not so sure I agree with you on Icahn doing a simple "Pump and Dump AAPL." If you look at his reasoning for when he invested in AAPL, 2 to 3 years ago, he had all the right reasons. Things were going well for Apple (perceived as a growth company then), and Tim Cook seemed like he knew what he was doing. Unfortunately, as almost everyone agrees, Apple seems to have lost "it."

Don't blame an investor like Icahn for making a bet on a company, and then changing his bet when the company management started mishandling the company years after his investment.

 

[nostresshere]

I have purchased 3 Macbooks, 6 ipads, maybe 8 iphones. I often ask myself why? Sure, they are great products, but expensive and no longer ground breaking. There are other options available. And, some of the "wonderful" interfact things are getting annoying - not to say any other OS is better.

What other company gets front page news just because they are introducing the latest version of their product?

Yea, Apple is a great company, but times will change. Not spreading doom and gloom, just a reality check.

 

[Deuce on the Clock]

Knew this day was coming. 80-85 next level. Creepy pic he has though.

 

[hollowplayer]

mr. Icahn is one of rich men alive, i am sure he knows what hes doing. It is not about numbers Mr. tim cook its all about quality of products, tim cook has flooded the apple linesups with mediocres. Back in the day iphone keynote was like new years eve to us but not anymore, sure your company make a lot of money and please alo t of investors but in the long run its all about products. Looks like steve jobs was always right.

 

[Zaqfalcon]

 

[DevNull0]

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?

I hope so. If Tim Cook resigned tomorrow I'd go out and buy a shiny new MBP to celebrate and replace my 2011 model. I think I've spent my last penny on Apple products until that cancer named Timmy is eradicated.

 

[sudo1996]

Fixed the headline for you:

"Carl Icahn Pumps and Dumps AAPL And Makes $2 billion."

The Wall Street garbage I've read today is making me feel like the entire world has gone insane.

The world doesn't revolve around AAPL.

BTW, it makes more sense to be pissed off over China, not Icahn. He probably made the correct move. Chinese government and corporations are scum. The country has one of the largest GDPs, apparently based on stolen technology since absolutely no innovation has come from there, and they freely pollute natural resources that we share with them. They take advantage of our free trade while attacking outside corporations in their own country. These guys are our enemies, and the U.S. should screw them over at any given chance.
[doublepost=1461891939][/doublepost]

Wasn't he the one pushing for all these stock buybacks? What good have they done for the stock?

The stock went up a lot after the buybacks. I know, correlation doesn't imply causation, but you certainly can't say with any more confidence that they've hurt.

 

[cdmoore74]

Never fall in love with a tech company. One day you have the best product, next day the competition catches up and all of the sudden you're getting attacked from all sides.
Company's such as Blackberry, Nokia , Sony, Motorola, HTC and Microsoft (phone) were all very big players. Apple will join the list but the question is when.

 

[Tech198]

Finally, we'll no longer have to see his creepy smile.

Creepy smile ?

 

[HardTruth]

All I can say
[doublepost=1461893174][/doublepost]

 

[Analog Kid]

More money than god, and can't get a decent portrait taken?

 

[DevNull0]

Put aside the euphoria and accept Apple as a blue chip company with steady sales and good profits. It's no longer the upstart mega growth stock it used to be. The short term risk is all those folks sitting on huge gains collectively deciding to cash out whenever the share price bounces a little.

They don't act like a blue chip company. They make about 80% of their profit from a single product category that it very vulnerable to consumer whim and fashion. I would be way more worried about Apple dropping 30% than a real blue chip like an oil producer or a telco.

 

[macdragonfl]

I love my iPhone 6s+ and consider it the best smartphone ever made. But with coming iPhones dropping the headphone plug, I would also quickly sell all my Apple stock, if I had any.

If you think like that never invest in stocks. The headphone jack is going on all cell phones Apple will do it first. Samsung and everyone will follow. It's a legacy connector that takes up room on the logic board that can be used for other components and make phones thinner or room for a slightly larger battery. The internal space is a precious commodity. Intel is showing usb-c headphone connector.
It will fuel much larger gains in Bluetooth headsets and external adapters for both analog and Bluetooth dongles will serve the legacy customers.

 

[echo44]

I have been a fan boy since 1992.
This is about the least excited I have been about Apple.
I had a feeling we were heading in this direction!
for the last few months every time I have gone to the Apple store it has been relatively empty.
It used to be you went to the mall and every store was empty than you walked into the Apple store and it was packed with a party of excited customers. Now it has become one of the empty stores.
Times are changing yet apple has stagnated. A great example are the Apple events.
They used to be cool because they were original and exciting. Now every event follows the same exact format.
The last event I actually was completely bored.
Apple has always been greedy charging premium for their cutting edge products, now they seem arrogant as they still charge a premium yet there is no significant advantage vs the competitors. Over the last few years there has been a major decrease in the quality in their software. Is photos, safari pages etc still cutting edge? Does anyone really enjoy using photos?
Steve Jobs used to say "stay hungry and foolish"
Unfortunately Apple is a huge company and will have no real significant financial troubles for years. They still made $50 billion this quarter. This is still the 13th highest quarter revenue recorded by any company in the history of the world.
They are coasting on inventions brought to market By Steve Jobs. Even if nothing changes they will have no trouble for years just continuing on incremental improvements. Unfortunately they have gotten fat and are no longer hungry. I will be surprised if we see any new disruptive technology from Apple anytime soon.
Also for those that listen to the earnings calls, for the last 3 years every 1/4 Tim cook says the same line " we are very excited about the products in the pipeline" where are these products. i would be more willing to invest in Apple if the management was more down to earth. Steve Jobs was much more straight forward in these conference calls.

 

[volcomvenom]

could he know something, is it a conspiracy?