Money Morning Article of the Week
by David Zeiler, Associate Editor, Money Morning
Having fallen more than 10% since late July, the Apple stock price just may be ripe for more buying, according to activist investor Carl Icahn.
Icahn said in a CNBC interview Wednesday:
“Apple, even in a bear market – it may get hurt, it may go down – but I think Apple is still ridiculously underpriced.”
Icahn owns more than 53 million shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and has on several occasions urged CEO Tim Cook to enhance shareholder value by increasing the dividend and buying back shares.
But Icahn’s relationship with Apple stands out as unusual for an activist investor. For the past year, Icahn has spent more time praising Apple and making wildly optimistic predictions (he said the AAPL stock price should be $203). Typically, activist investors agitate for changes in corporate strategy.
Icahn followed that same playbook when speaking to CNBC this week.
Why Icahn Wants to Buy Even More AAPL Stock
Icahn said:
“They are still misunderstood by most of Wall Street. They say it’s manufacturing. It’s not. It’s a great ecosystem.”
And he admitted to being tempted by the current AAPL stock price of about $110.
Icahn said:
“I am very seriously considering buying a lot more of it. I would be buying much more if I weren’t really concerned about the market.”
Just days earlier, Icahn put out a video entitled “Danger Ahead: A Message from Carl Icahn” in which he discusses his concerns about the markets and the possibility of another financial catastrophe as bad as or even worse than the 2008 financial crisis.
It’s possible Icahn is waiting for the markets to go south in a major way before scooping up more shares of companies he likes, such as Apple stock.
While it’s always difficult to ferret out Icahn’s real motives, with AAPL stock, he’s mostly on target. Here’s why…