Activist investor Carl Icahn has been busy tweeting about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) again this morning. He sent out three tweets this morning, telling about how he increased his position in Apple stock and continues to publicly push for the company to increase its share buyback.
Shares rose more than 1% after he finished tweeting about it. We’ll have to see if he continues to add an average of $8 billion per tweet to Apple’s market capitalization.
Carl Icahn calls Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock a “no brainer”
Icahn’s first tweet refers back to Aug. 13 when he first tweeted about buying Apple stock. He said over the last two weeks, they bought $500 million worth in additional shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). He said with that investment, their position in Apple is worth more than $3 billion.
Here are his first couple of tweets:
Since tweeting about our large position in $AAPL on Aug 13, when the stock was 468 per share, we’ve kept buying shares of this ‘no brainer.’
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) January 22, 2014
Having purchased $500 million more $AAPL shares in the last two weeks, our investment has crossed the $3 billion mark yesterday.
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) January 22, 2014
Carl Icahn pushes Apple board further
In addition to revealing his increased position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Carl Icahn also said the company’s board is doing a “great disservice” to shareholders by not increasing its buyback. He said he would be publishing an “in-depth letter” very soon:
We feel $APPL board is doing great disservice to shareholders by not having markedly increased its buyback. In-depth letter to follow soon.
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) January 22, 2014
Since last fall, Icahn has been pushing Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to buy back $150 billion worth of shares as soon as possible, and he continues that push. He filed a non-binding shareholder proposal for inclusion on the company’s proxy ballot next month. However, he dialed back his demands a bit to a $50 billion share buyback. With the type of proposal he filed, Apple will not be bound to follow through if shareholders vote for it.
Of course Apple management is recommending that they vote against it, noting that last year they did increase the company’s dividend and share buyback plans. Apple also said that they need all that cash they’re sitting on in order to keep up with innovation in the competitive technology industry.
