After a temporary halt in trading, Apple shares rocketed upwards after it posted earnings and revenue well above estimates today and announced a 7-1 stock split. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) posted earnings of $11.62 a share, on revenue of $45.6 billion while the consensus estimate was calling for earnings of $10.18 per share and revenue of $43.53 billion.
iPhone sales were well over analysts’ expectations while iPad sales disappointed some.
Icahn and Apple’s 7-1 stock split
While addressing general calls, and specific calls from Carl Icahn to share its extravagant cash in hand, the company’s board approved a 7-1 stock split and a dividend increase of roughly 8% to $3.29. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) also announced its intention to ratchet-up the overall size of its overall capital return program to over $130 billion rather than its earlier plan to buyback $100 billion in shares.
Icahn took to Twitter immediately, and in no uncertain terms shared his approval with the world tweeting, “Agree completely with $AAPL’s increased buyback and extremely pleased with results. Believe we’ll also be happy when we see new products”
Icahn then followed that up with another tweet that read, “As we said at conference yesterday, we continue to believe $AAPL remains meaningfully undervalued. Many analysts fail to understand company”
With the split, more and more small investors may be able to follow his advice.
Apple has split its stock three times in the past. It was split with payable dates of June 15, 1987; June 21, 2000; and February 28, 2005. Each of those splits were a result of Apple shares crossing the $100 barrier. Steve Jobs told reporters in 2007 that he wouldn’t pursue another split in the near future while citing both Google and Berkshire Hathaway whose shares hadn’t been split.
Tim Cook has bucked this trend and has shown a willingness to make Apple a more investor-friendly stock. From August 2012 through March 2014, Apple has spent $66 billion in cash on its capital return program.
June 2nd split and after hours gains
The split will offer each Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shareholder of record on June 2nd six additional shares for each share held on the record date. Trading will begin on a split-adjusted basis on June 9 at somewhere around $80 if Apple’s share price were extrapolated today.
While Icahn was pleased, at least one expert felt Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was pandering while deciding whether the Transformer films were age appropriate for his son while thinking about what to have for dinner(?)
“It’s a company that’s trying to please Wall Street,” Max Wolff, chief economist and strategist at Citizen VC told CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” “It didn’t used to have to. Now it does. I think it’s a huge milestone that they’ve realized they do and they’re throwing meat on that. I don’t know how transformative it is.”
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is presently (6:06PM EDT) trading up $39.91 at $564.38 for an after hours gain of 7.61%.
