Wall Street

Apple to replace AT&T on the Dow on March 18

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 6, 2015

Apple of California will replace AT&T in the Dow Jones Industrial Average after the close of trading on March 18, Reuters reported this morning. The famed Dow Jones Industrial Average is indicative of the overall market health so Apple joining and replacing the nation's second-largest carrier on the index is certainly an encouraging sign for the economy.

Because the Dow is a weighted average of absolute stock price (unlike other indices), Apple was unable to join the Dow until its seven-to-one stock split, which took place in June of last year.

AAPL passes 700 billion in market value

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 25, 2014

Apple's market capitalization has hit a new milestone, going up 0.8 percent shortly after the market opened Tuesday morning and reaching a market value of nearly $702 billion, higher than any U.S. company in history. By comparison, its previous record market capitalization hit $658 billion in September 2012.

The stock has been rising steadily over the past few months and has picked up speed after the company posted record opening weekend sales for the new iPhones in September and investors reacted positively to the Apple Watch and other new products Tim Cook & Co. unloaded as part of the massive Fall product refresh.

AAPL splits 7 to 1

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 9, 2014

As promised during Apple's most recent earnings call, the Cupertino, California headquartered consumer electronics powerhouse is set to open on Monday at $92.22 a share as the company puts forth its plan to split stock, its fourth stock split to date.

All common stock owners will receive six additional shares for each share in existence. As a result, the value of each individual share will drop accordingly, but the value of their total holdings will not. Read on for the full reveal...

As institutional investors side with Apple, Carl Icahn withdraws his buyback proposal

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 16, 2016

Controversial activist investor Carl Icahn continues to aggressively purchase shares of Apple while insisting that the company increase the size of its share buyback program. His proposal for a $50 billion buyback has been met with resistance by proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) which now recommends voting against the plan.

ISS argues that the Apple board has already returned the bulk of its U.S.-generated cash to shareholders through the company's aggressive stock buybacks and dividends payouts. As a result of large institutional investors siding with Apple, Icahn has withdrawn his proposal...

Tim Cook on bigger iPhones, ‘crappy’ Android experience, not making junk and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 7, 2014

Following notable excerpts from Daisuke Wakabayashi’s interview with Tim Cook in The Wall Street Journal, the financial newspaper has now posted the whole thing on its Digits blog.

The full interview gives us a more detailed insight into the mindset of Tim Cook's Apple as the CEO discusses recent topics of interest, including Lenovo's $2.9 billion purchase of Google's Motorola Mobility unit and additional information regarding Apple's share buyback program.

He also took time to touch upon the ongoing discussion concerning supposedly bigger iPhones in the pipeline, the current products not yet hitting the ceiling and lots more. I've included the best quotes and tidbits for your reading pleasure after the break...

Wall Street to Apple: boost buy back to fuel stock prices

Ed Sutherland ∙ August 19, 2013

Although Apple is set to buy back $60 billion of company stock through 2015, experts are advising CEO Tim Cook and others to boost that figure. An additional $50 billion stock repurchase could add $4.25 to share value at little cost to the cash-rich technology giant, according to one Wall Street analyst and activist investor Carl Icahn.

Icahn, who recently bought $1.5 billion of Apple stock, helped Apple tock surpass $500 per share...

Investor Carl Icahn announces making a large investment in Apple, run for the hills!

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 13, 2013

Controversial billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has announced on Twitter making a large investment in Apple. Touting a "large position" on the stock, he said he believed the stock to be "extremely undervalued" and revealed having a "a nice conversation" with Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier today, which Apple has officially confirmed now.

Needles to say, Apple doomsayers came out of the woodwork screaming "There goes Apple!" Another conversation would follow soon, Icahn tweeted out. He did however let slip he may press Apple to use its cash pile to repurchase more of its shares from the public, perhaps in an effort to reduce the company's exposure to fickle Wall Street investors and crazypants analyst...

Wall Street prepares for flat year-over-year growth from Apple

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

If Wall Street was caught flat-footed by Apple's lower earnings back in April, analysts are preparing for more bad news for the third quarter. Apple is expected to announce lower quarterly revenue and sales, prompting one expert to slice thirteen percent off his previous forecast for the third quarter. Although a $5.4 billion reduction in expectations might seem dramatic, it is actually rosier than a review of what Apple may announce July 24...

Google more valuable than Apple – if you exclude cash

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 26, 2013

For years, the media has been keen to compare companies based on their market capitalization. The metric itself is pretty fluke, but it makes for nice headlines - especially if the topic of reporting is Apple. Earlier this year, for example, much noise was made about Apple passing the oil giant ExxonMobil to become the world's most valuable corporation by market capitalization.

Having said that, it really shouldn't be surprising big media is now reporting that the Internet giant Google recently "passed" Apple to become the world's most valuable technology corporation. The bold claim comes with a caveat: you have to stretch your definition of market cap and strip out some key metrics...

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 dead in the water

Ed Sutherland ∙ June 7, 2013

Following clickbait dead-in-the-water headlines which spelled doom for Apple on overzealous analysts projecting overly optimistic iPhone sales, it's now Samsung's turn to feel Wall Street's wrath. So, is Samsung's smartphone business running out of steam?

That's the question Wall Street is pondering as investors punish the South Korean firm after orders for its flagship Galaxy S4 had supposedly dropped by as much as thirty percent.

Friday, Samsung shares slid by more than six percent after more than $12 billion was sliced from the Android maker's market capitalization. Can Samsung stop the downward spiral, perhaps offering a stock buyback as Apple did? Or are we seeing only the latest signs of an industry-wide slowdown in demand?

Either way, the old saying about people living in glass houses seems all the more pertinent...

Apple’s new Wall Street runaway hit: iDebt

Ed Sutherland ∙ May 1, 2013

Wall Street is nothing if not fickle. Questions over Apple's future profits sent the company's stock into a tailspin for the past six months, then a recovery of sorts is now underway.

The iPhone maker Tuesday floated a record $17 billion in debt, an action that literally had investors falling over themselves.

Consider that Apple up until now was literally the only major technology corporation with zero debt on its books. By the end of yesterday, $50 billion in orders were received for what now looks to be Apple's latest hot product: the iDebt...

Sanity returns: lower Apple earnings, but higher revenue projected

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

Like the first hints of green during a long-awaited spring, some sanity regarding Apple's fiscal future is poking its head above ground. Wild speculation that the iPhone maker was washed up has been replaced with realism. The latest example: calm predictions that Apple's second quarter income will be down - but with record projected revenue.

Fortune reports a Wall Street consensus of $10.18 per share, down from $12.30 for the second quarter of 2012. At the same time, Apple is projecting record quarterly revenues of $41 billion to $43 billion. If there is a "problem," it may be lower margins from all the new products Apple introduced...