Jump to content

AAPL - Apple Inc.


indirect

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 7k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Guest valueInv

Very good, looking forward to the update in March or April. Almost wish they didn't say anything and just kept buying, but this is better than not opportunistically seizing the moment.

 

I'm guessing they've bought what they want for now. That's why they are talking about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

what incentive would holders have to sell if you offered them market prices?

 

I guess what I am saying is that a liquid company like Apple should be able to retire meaningful amounts of stock in the open market if they desired.  I could be wrong, but 12M shares trade on average for Apple.  28M on high volume days.  A trading shop could have probably lifted 7M shares today without the market price moving meaningfully upward.  Why not take the slower route instead of spiking the price?

 

if they could buy "meaningful" amounts of stock in the open market the price would rise no? besides listen to Apple CEO. he says he is "agnostic" as to the price he pays to buyback stock. this is wrong, but that's his thinking. he isn't making a dent in the cash hoard. he keeps adding cash to his balance sheet. he needs to "lose" some cash quickly. dutch tender is the way to do it. apple is an elephant. elephants move around the jungle very slowly. icahn wants the elephant to move faster.

 

Good thing they didn't tender. 14B is meaningful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know I'm late with this one, but I figured I couldn't be the only one who hadn't realized the homage:

 

Compare:

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiyIcz7wUH0

 

The homage is even better when you read the backstory of the Think Different ad campaign that was created when Jobs came back (this one:

)

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2011/12/14/the-real-story-behind-apples-think-different-campaign/

 

The writing was inspired by the film Dead Poets Society, a Jobs favorite, and Robin Williams was a personal friend of Jobs. You could say there are many parallels between the message of the film and how Apple does things. Anyway, I thought it was cool. Maybe I'm the last one to notice that the ad was taken verbatim from the film..

 

Good film too, I rewatched it yesterday. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest valueInv

what incentive would holders have to sell if you offered them market prices?

 

I guess what I am saying is that a liquid company like Apple should be able to retire meaningful amounts of stock in the open market if they desired.  I could be wrong, but 12M shares trade on average for Apple.  28M on high volume days.  A trading shop could have probably lifted 7M shares today without the market price moving meaningfully upward.  Why not take the slower route instead of spiking the price?

 

if they could buy "meaningful" amounts of stock in the open market the price would rise no? besides listen to Apple CEO. he says he is "agnostic" as to the price he pays to buyback stock. this is wrong, but that's his thinking. he isn't making a dent in the cash hoard. he keeps adding cash to his balance sheet. he needs to "lose" some cash quickly. dutch tender is the way to do it. apple is an elephant. elephants move around the jungle very slowly. icahn wants the elephant to move faster.

 

Good thing they didn't tender. 14B is meaningful.

 

Remember these guys have the "worst capital allocation in corporate history"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Share count peaked in March of 2013 at 940 million shares. At the end of Dec share count fell to 892 million. $14 billion should take out 27 million more. March 2014 share count will be around 865 million shares. In less than 12 months they have reduced the share count by 75 million shares = 8%. Last year at this time there were many questions regarding what Apple was going to do with its cash hoard. The picture is much clearer today; we at least have part of the answer.

 

Just how much these repurchases benefit shareholders will only be answered in the coming years. If Apple is able to get total earnings growing again then with the much lower share count earnings per share will be much higher and we can expect the stock to trade much higher. My guess is the repurchases of the past year will be very good for Apple shareholders over the medium to long term.

 

Between now and April we also will get another dividend increase. Current dividend is $3.05 and it may go to $3.50/quarter = 2.7%. My guess is we will also get an increase to the capital return plan with more added to the buyback authorization with perhaps another debt raise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apple Can't Buy Back Confidence

 

 

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304450904579369244016511838?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLE_Video_Top

 

As much as it is, $40 billion doesn't always buy your way out of a jam.

 

Apple  has been on a buyback tear, repurchasing $40 billion of its own shares over the last 12 months. About $14 billion alone came the last two weeks. That is since the company's fiscal first-quarter results disappointed and the stock fell 8% in one day.

 

While part of an existing $60 billion buyback plan, chief Tim Cook painted the move during an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week as an investment in Apple, effectively saying the stock is undervalued. With Apple's shares currently trading at less than eight times forward earnings—excluding its $159 billion cash hoard—the valuation is certainly undemanding.

 

ut buybacks aren't making the best use of Apple's resources, even if they helped Apple in its most recent period deliver its first quarter of earnings-per-share growth after four straight declines.

 

If anything, they make the company appear reactive.

 

Activist Carl Icahn has been pushing for $50 billion more in buybacks. However, share repurchases haven't been a major driver of Apple's share price. The stock is still more than 10% below its level of March 19, 2012, when the company announced its first dividend and buyback.

 

Little wonder, since the return on Apple's stock purchases isn't great. Looking at the $14 billion of stock the company bought back on the open market in the last three quarters of 2013, the return to date, excluding dividends, is less than 8%.

 

Granted, not much time has elapsed. Yet with Apple's actual business generating an average return on invested capital of 28.6% in fiscal 2013, according to FactSet, the company's efforts at financial engineering pale in comparison.

 

Having spent nearly $4.8 billion on research and development in the last calendar year, Apple clearly has new products in the hopper. Those are what will drive higher returns, not a campaign to appease Mr. Icahn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/apple-s-emotional-buyback-is-anti-free-market-155112990.html

 

Oh, those anti-captialist, socialist, evil, greedy, manipulative people at Apple....

 

Where do you find this stuff, LOL (sorry Kraven).

My favorite quote: "The aggression of the buyback screwed up the price discovery system of the marketplace."

Buying back your own stock isn't shareholder friendly it is aggression.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest valueInv

"We even see that the true "early adopters" who gravitate towards the latest and greatest are increasingly willing to trade the highest of the "high end" devices for what one might call "mid-range phones" or "less high end" phones.  They're also deferring upgrading their devices to get the latest OS.  "

 

How do you figure? Wheres the evidence?

Nexus 4 is the evidence.  It's firmly mid range in both pricing and capabilities. You need to be technically savvy enough to buy it, link it to your carrier, and set it up without in store help.  It's not a mass marketed device, so you can assume that only the more technically inclined are buying it.  And they are buying it by the millions.

 

HTC One Google edition demand also shows early adopters switching from iPhone, although it's unclear what percentage of these people were always in the Android camp and never bought iPhones. 

 

The comparable HTC One is priced about 20% lower than the iPhone 5.  Perhaps it's not accurate to say that the HTC One is not the highest of the high end, as it has superior hardware to the iPhone, but it's certainly not priced like the iPhone. 

 

In any case, it would be very difficult for me to point to studies showing this phenomenon, as we will only get evidence of this in the next 8 quarters.

 

Well, here some evidence for ya:

 

http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/10/htc-hopes-cheaper-phones-will-save-it-from-chronic-losses/

 

:P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone else have endless problems sinking an iPhone with iOS7 with iTunes? Nearly every time I try to update the music on my phone, it acts like it's syncing, but doesn't work. The only way around it is to remove all the music from the phone, and syncing it again. A few minutes ago, after doing this, iTunes showed that I had about 10GB of free space on my phone (I have a 32GB phone), and each time I try to sync it tells me there's not enough available space on my phone.

 

 

I love my iPhone, and like iTunes a lot, but why after all these years are there still problems with them syncing with each other?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...