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Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

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Re: Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

#131

Post by SoftwareMaven »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #125
padobson wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want to point out that the amount of cash it takes to take a public company private is not equal to Shares * Market Price. It's actually Float Shares * Market Price. This doesn't make much of a difference in Apple's case, because most of their market share is floating on the public market. Quick calculations: 932.37M Shares Outstanding x ~$600/share = $559.4B Mkt Cap 931.79M Float Shares x ~$600/share = $559.0…

But you only have to have 50.1% of the shares to force the other 49.9% to let you go private :-)

Serious question: wouldn't the SEC say "no way" if that 49.9% constituted more than 500 (at least, I believe that's the number) people?

Re: Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

#132

Post by wanderful »

dereg wrote: post #37
jcfrei wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's not true. it is their money - the shareholders probably just wouldn't like the move and as a result, apples stock price would plummet (but that doesn't really need to bother them - it's not like somebody's just gonna buy the currently most expensive company in the world). however what would bother me more as an investor would be that apple apparently has no idea what to do with all that money (how about expand…

Tim Cook said on the conference call that they have well more than enough to make strategic investments and to support growth. Plus, a company's #1 goal is to create shareholder value.

A company? We're talking about Apple. I doubt Steve Jobs would have been caught dead saying that about Apple, and I hope that culture is continuing with Apple. Apple employees, notably Ives, have said over and over that their #1 goal is to create .

Re: Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

#133

Post by mjwalshe »

shingen wrote: post #33
nikcub wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of a single business that Apple could buy (note: could buy, not 'look at the market cap and assume that is what it costs to buy the company') that would give it a level of control in an industry that the government would care about.

HP, Dell, Facebook, ARM Holdings, TXI, Cisco, Google, Amazon, Oracle, Intel, AT&T, Verizon. Apple could buy any one of them, either through friendly or hostile means. Not a single one of those would make it through anti-trust. Shareholders for Cisco would love to get $200 billion for their company; the US Government would never allow it in a million years. Shareholders for Amazon would love to get $200 billion, and t…

I doubt that Apple would want to be a phone company - you have to start playing nice with the regulators and the Govenments who licence you.

Re: Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

#134

Post by [deleted] »

Cushman wrote: post #130
Osiris wrote: post #101

With $100B in the bank, I keep thinking that Apple could do a lot more to disrupt of lot of industries. They could afford to build an entirely new wireless carrier, from scratch (I understand spectrum might be an issue). They could create an entire newly kind of music label that redefines how artists are compensated and how labels make money. Or they could create their own new book publishing company that breaks with…

It's the first one that excites me. Apple could completely upend the wireless market by selling data service at cost as a loss-leader for their devices-- or even building lifetime unlimited data into the price of every Apple device. Compared to the cost of building the network, what's $100 million on lobbying to nab some free spectrum? Alas, I think the current arrangement is working too well for Apple to want to tak…

[deleted]

Re: Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

#136

Post by beambot »

karamazov wrote: post #128
beambot wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with your assessment of dividends vs. share buybacks. My opinion mirrors that of Mark Cuban. A few choice quotes from [1]: Dividends offer _true_ returns: They send a message to shareholders that you want them to stay as shareholders and are rewarding them for their committment to your company. Its a reminder to shareholders that the business investments you have made have actually worked and the reward is…

This is an interesting point of view, but the article you linked to misses a fundamental point of the "golden parachute" offered to CEO's: if a leading executive messes up, you want to incentivize them to come forward, not to cover up their mistake for fear of losing their jobs. Is a golden parachute ideal for this? Perhaps not, as it does introduce some strange incentives overall; but I'm not aware of anything bette…

I have no idea how golden parachutes relate to a discussion of dividends vs. stock buybacks. Enlighten me?

Re: Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

#137

Post by msellout »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #131
ChuckMcM wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you only have to have 50.1% of the shares to force the other 49.9% to let you go private :-)

Serious question: wouldn't the SEC say "no way" if that 49.9% constituted more than 500 (at least, I believe that's the number) people?

Yes.

if (NumOwners >= 500) public = true;

Re: Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

#138

Post by ScotterC »

programminggeek wrote: post #47

I hate to say this is a bad idea, but dividends signal to the market that you have no better way to spend your money than just giving it back to investors to spend elsewhere. Combining a stock buyback plan is smart at least because perhaps they can balance the two and counteract the dividend effect by buying up shares. In reality Apple could probably just become a private company by buying back most/all the public sh…

The key part about offering dividends is you start to attract the people who only buy stocks that pay dividends. It's a substantial category.

Re: Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

#139

Post by aforty »

snowwrestler wrote: post #80
brown9-2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can really point to any one single reason why Apple's stock has been driven up so far lately with any sort of confidence. The market is not always rational when it comes to individual stocks.

There's probably a good argument to made that it could be higher. Their P/E is somewhere around 16, compare to around 20 for Microsoft. Does anyone really think Microsoft is going to grow faster than Apple in the near future? I think the recent stock bump has basically been the market realizing that despite growing very fast, Apple's stock price still hasn't kept up with real revenue growth.

I'd say that + overall market moving upwards + the anticipation of a stock buyback and/or stock dividend.

I don't think we can attribute all this growth to any one thing.

Re: Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

#140

Post by grinich »

msellout wrote: post #137
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: wouldn't the SEC say "no way" if that 49.9% constituted more than 500 (at least, I believe that's the number) people?

Yes. if (NumOwners >= 500) public = true;

Actually, I think the rule is >500 investors, you have to publicly disclose financials a la Sarbanes–Oxley Act.

Different than being a publicly traded company.

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