Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has supposedly been looking for a replacement for CEO Tim Cook, according to Forbes contributor Gene Marcial. He said Wall Street sources say the company is in the process of doing it, but there’s no evidence of the sort at this point. And I have to admit that I just don’t see Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) ousting him—even though the company’s stock has gotten pounded in recent months.
According to Marcial, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) executives have privately said that it’s time for Cook to go. Also a major source of the rumor that Cook will be out is a tweet posted by hedge fund manager Doug Kass, who wrote. “From my Gnome, high above the Alps – “Is Apple’s Tim Cook…Cooked?”
One of the biggest problems with Cook is said to be the fact that the company’s market value has dropped by about 50 percent when he took over. But we shouldn’t forget that Cook should also get some credit for building the company’s market value up to a record high when the company’s stock hit $705 per share in September. So for the first year of his tenure, the stock rose, and then during the last six months, it fell.
Cook took over in October 2011, so in a little less than one year as CEO, the company’s stock skyrocketed under his watch, and for no apparent reason. The company was doing the same thing then as it is now—refreshing the iPhone and the iPad every year without releasing new products. But unfortunately, the higher a company goes, the further it has to fall and shares of Apple are now down to a new one-year low.
Meanwhile, Wall Street continues to remain bullish on Apple, which could be for a couple of reasons. Analysts are extremely hesitant to turn bearish on a company whose stock has been as high as Apple’s has been, so they’re not going to end their bullish view anytime soon. But they also see the potential that lies in Apple.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has a long history of innovation, especially under Steve Jobs. It was established in 1976, but things didn’t really take off until after the iPhone was introduced in 2007. The company’s high profit margins and consumer demand for its products made its stock very attractive to investors in the past.
But in order for the game to change, investors want more out of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). They have higher expectations for the company because of its past innovations. They want more. But new product development doesn’t happen overnight. Changing the face of computing takes time.
Cook may be a different kind of leader than Jobs was, but in my view, the stock drop isn’t his fault. The markets are undergoing a major shift right now as U.S. companies have begun to dominate the global market, landing the top five positions in terms of market value, according to Bloomberg data. As one of the largest companies in the U.S., Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is going to endure some growing pains, regardless of who is the company’s CEO. What goes up must come down, but that doesn’t mean it will stay down forever. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has plenty of cash on its balance sheet, so it’s clearly a strong company.
Maybe now really is time to buy the stock because it has the potential to go back up to where it was. Unfortunately however, that’s a really big “maybe,” so investors are certainly concerned. It depends entirely on what the company comes out with next.
And of course the goal is always to buy low and sell high, so if investors as a whole started selling off Apple stock at its peak to turn some quick cash, it’s natural that the stock would drop dramatically. Rapid rises typically come with rapid falls.
This has nothing to do with Tim Cook, but rather, it may indicate that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a victim of its own success. If so, then things will turn around, but probably not in the near term. I side with most analysts in viewing Apple as more of a long-term investment that will likely pay off rather than a stock that investors can turn a quick buck in the near term.
