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Though it pulled Prop. 2 after David Einhorn scored an injunction, Apple (AAPL -0.5%) is still...
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Wednesday, February 27, 12:41 PM ETThough it pulled Prop. 2 after David Einhorn scored an injunction, Apple (AAPL -0.5%) is still committed to requiring shareholder approval for issuing preferred stock, the company states at its shareholder meeting. Also, CalPERS says it would have voted for Prop. 2 if it had the chance. A proposal granting shareholders an advisory vote on exec. compensation has been approved, while one requiring execs to keep 33% of their stock until retirement has been shot down. Doug Kass might be disappointed to learn no stock split has been announced (or perhaps not). (live blog)
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This news story has 18 comments:
No damage was done in spite of Einhorn.
Hopefully, you will get your surprises at the upcoming Apple events!
They have to understand that the level of scrutiny that they are under is important and that the "negative" news has gnawed away at the most important asset they have - their reputation.
Hopefully (up to my eyeballs in AAPL btw) today's action is the last sign that the stock is truly at a rock bottom valuation... I'm ok with a flat to slightly down day...
Shareholder approval of what would have been the element of proposition 2 that got edited out will simply be approved at the next shareholders meeting. Who could not possibly have figured that out? Essentially all of the institutional shareholders are in favor of it, and it enhances shareholder rights, as it should.
Apple management is managing the company for the LONG TERM, not for short term changes in momentary share price. This is great for long term investors, and bad for anyone hoping for a quick buck based on whatever they want to do to make a quick buck.
Apple is being managed for "investors" not for "traders." If you're a trader, you might or might not make money on Apple in the short term; good luck in your various schemes. Don't expect Apple management to run the company to enhance your short-term schemes.
If you want a rah-rah manipulating CEO, go play with salesforce.com. You'll get the full load of every possible manipulation to increase share price. Go trade CRM and stay away from APPL.
My initial point, and one that recently just dawned on me, is that there is a very dangerous negative feedback loop going on here - Plummeting stock price - no news from company (other than sales are going well!) - public perception declines... And in the end, ALL Apple has is public perception.
We don't need huge announcements, we need a better communicator.
I'm long AAPL and say BRAVO! Announcements will come but the culture has not been to make announcements at shareholder meetings, I'm good with that.
This is silly and shortsighted. If you think they have a monopoly on cool, they don't. At one point,it was extremely cool to have a blackberry phone.
Cook is an arrogant billionaire, without the mystique of a Steve Jobs. The earnings conference call was a disaster, the shareholder meeting is a dud.
"Traders" aren't the ones getting hammered here - that is a ludicrous statement - they have been out of the stock - the buy and hold (read "loyal" shareholders) have been punished by the market and are being left out of the conversation entirely by the small clique of 9 and 10 figure managers at Apple.
I'm convinced that Apple's culture and management are well versed in ignoring their day to day stock price because they are accustomed to placing the appropriate emphasis on the mid to long term goals of the company.
Long AAPL.
You're wrong that all Apple has is the public perception. They have a company, a going concern, that continues to make about $220 million in free cash flow every single day. CNBC, commentators, hedge fund manipulators hoping to make a quick hit can do what they want and say what they want, but the product continue to be made, the buyers continue to buy, and the company continues to make more profit than any company ever has in the history to the world. Apple does not need Wall Street to finance its operations or to tell it what to do or where to go. Apple is NOT going to be part of anyone's quick-hit financial engineering scheme.
You need to read more Warren Buffett and stay away the idiotic media commentators. When "public perception" differs from the the underlying reality of what is going on with a company, that leads to opportunity. Where is the contrarian in you?
In physics and engineering, we learn about the "signal to noise" ratio. In today's investment world, there is an incredibly large amount of noise, and only a small amount of signal. People over-react every hour to some little piece of noise somewhere, and trade based on it.
Do you really think the traders have all home on Apple and that long-term Apple investors are the only ones left? You couldn't be more wrong on this. The average trading day sees more than 20 million Apple shares trade, almost $10 billion exchanging hands each day just in Apple shares, not to mention the enormous size derivatives trading in Apple. Most long-term investors are sitting on the sidelines watching all this; not that many are buying or selling on any given day. The buying and selling (the "market") is made up almost entirely of traders. In the markets, you can have an opinion, but you have to trade to vote. If you don't vote (buy or sell shares), your opinion doesn't affect share prices (unless you gather media attention, write articles, etc.).
The traders run the market in the short term; and the short term happens every day. If you're going to act as a long-term investor, you need to get a good sense of what you believe the intrinsic value of the shares are and will be in the future, and you need to be right, versus the market perception today. It is a completley different mentality. If you don't think the market is somehow mis-pricing a security today (high or low), and aren't willing to buy or sell or hold based on your perception of the mis-pricing, you can't really call yourself an investor. You should just buy some mutual fund or market index and be the tiny boat afloat on the giant ocean, and rise or fall based on others actions with no real opinion of your own.