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Outspoken Apple investor Carl Icahn dumps 7M shares of AAPL stock for $750M

Photo via: Huffington Post

Activist investor Carl Icahn, who on several occasions in the past has published open letters offering advice to Apple on stock related issues, has reportedly cut his stake in the company. CNBC reports that a filing discovered today shows Icahn has cut his shares by approximately 7 million, valued at approximately $750M, to 45.7 million shares as of December 31st, 2015. But it’s unclear exactly the motivation behind the move by Icahn, who has long been an outspoken advocate of the company and its stock performance.

Icahn has been quite vocal about Apple as he continued to increase his stake in the company up until now. The main issue at the heart of Icahn’s prodding of Apple and CEO Tim Cook has been regarding shareholder buybacks and related initiatives that Apple has put more of a focus on in recent years.

As for February last year, Icahn was one of the company’s ten largest shareholders with around $6.5B worth of stock and was publicly boasting about Apple being undervalued as it hit its highest market cap ever. Following the milestone for Apple, Icahn said he had “gained further confidence” in Apple and that he believed “the market should value Apple at $216 per share.” Icahn continued, “This is why we continue to own approximately 53 million shares worth $6.5 billion, and why we have not sold a single share.”

On December 31st, 2015, the day Icahn reportedly reduced his stake in Apple by 7 million shares, the company hit a high of 107.03 per share. It has declined since– around 15%– and today hit a high of 96.85 per share. That’s an almost $100M difference in the stock value on those 7 million shares on the day Icahn sold versus today.

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Comments

  1. AeronPeryton - 8 years ago

    Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya!

    And those shares are probably going to get gobbled up by Apple, bringing closer the day where they no longer have to put up with bat-brained idiots like Icahn ever again.

    • Tom@L (@Wild_hunt_) - 8 years ago

      lol dont cry too much. He still has much more shares left. No need to cry like a baby. Had it not for him, AAPL would have never initiated those big buybacks and dividend increases.

    • Jason Dean Crose - 8 years ago

      The Apple “magic” was all Steve Jobs. That carried them for a few years after his passing but Apple has now been fading for a while. Just look at the turnout for the iPhone 7. Icahn knows that it’s time to jump ship. Good luck going down with it captain.

  2. WaltFrench - 8 years ago

    Unless there’s more info not reported here, it’s ALSO unclear the actual dates (which should be a good guide to the price) on which he sold the bulk of his position. (Yes, you can trade millions of shares of AAPL or other stocks in one day but generally don’t panic and risk pushing your sale price down.)

    Might’ve caused that little dip in November, so he only got $118 or so. I sure don’t know. But he probably saved himself quite a bit more than the guesstimate above. He could have turned around a few days ago and bought all the shares back for $94 each a couple of days ago, and had a few dozen million to put into a helluva night on the town.

    Again, I don’t have the detail reports but usually you have a while to file, and you DON’T want to let others see your plans before you’re required to report.

    Also, I don’t advocate that others consider buying and/or selling quickly; it’s more likely to work against you than for you. Seems the mercurial—but also, extremely successful—Mr. Icahn held a solid position for many months.

    • 89p13 - 8 years ago

      Still has a solid position with 46,000,000 shares of Apple.

  3. rnc - 8 years ago

    What does this iCan’t matters?

    He had what? 1% of AAPL? That’s ridiculous, he’s a nobody!

  4. RP - 8 years ago

    It was sad how Cook capitulated to him, threw money away and took on debt because of his games. And sure enough, he bails as when it suits him.
    Of course that’s the game isn’t it? It’s all about me me me and not anyone else. Make a buck regardless of the company itself or anyone else.
    The free market at work.

    • Rolf Haug (@rolfhaug) - 8 years ago

      There was way more to it than that – Cook was praised for issuing those bonds. They were calling him “Tim Cook the banker”. Their first issuance in 2013, they literally nailed the bottom of the bond market. He was able to borrow that money at 1.6% interest. Way better than bringing back their overseas money at a 35% tax rate. At those types of interest rates to finance a dividend and buyback, you’re basically making money on your debt. They wouldn’t have to borrow this money though if Congress would reform the damn tax code. But creating that dividend and buyback changes the investor base. It changed AAPL from a high volatility trading stock with huge swings up and down, to an investor base thats more steady – dividend investors don’t tend to sell in and out constantly. They hold and collect the dividend. It puts a floor under the stock. There’s lots of funds that were never able to add AAPL to their portfolio because it didn’t pay a dividend. It opened it up to a whole new class of funds and investors. That and the split also helped it get added to the DJIA. Besides – Icahn still owns 46 million Apple shares – he only sold 7 million. Large investors always make sales at the end of the year to help pay some of their tax bills.

    • Smigit - 8 years ago

      If Tom Cook did something Icahn was asking for its because it made sense for Apple to do it, not because they were bending over to a single shareholder. Icahn asked for a great deal of many things over the last 24 minutes the and Apple certainly didn’t bend over to deliver on all accounts.

      • RP - 8 years ago

        How many investors does Cook personally have lunch with to discuss his concern.
        Under SJ there were never any dividends because it encouraged long term investment rather than hit n’ runners like Icahn.it encouraged Wall St manipulation. He got played.

  5. twelve01 - 8 years ago

    Assuming shares were sold on the open market, my influence as proportion of shares held, grew slightly. Should come in handy at the 2/25 meeting :-)

  6. macnificentseven48 - 8 years ago

    I’m surprised he didn’t sell more shares and put that money into the F.A.N.G. stocks which will likely soar again this year. Apple stock is a dog which only serves Apple executives who hold millions of shares. The small retail investors are getting almost nothing but a 2% dividend which is better than nothing. There are no significant share gains ahead for loyal shareholders. Playing Wall Street is a game for investors like Icahn who almost always win big. It’s hard to imagine Apple’s share price being stuck under $100 for the rest of 2016 but the way Apple is going it isn’t likely to get any better. All Apple knows how to do now is take on debt and never come up with any good acquisitions.

    • Rolf Haug (@rolfhaug) - 8 years ago

      That all depends when you got in – Apple has always been tough as a trade but great if you just own it. Even at these lower levels I’m up almost 50%. Icahn isn’t the type of investor who gets into momentum stocks like FANG; they go up huge but you can get crushed in the blink of an eye. He’s also been there and done that with Netflix back when it had great value. He bought into Netflix in 2012 at around $50 a share (pre-split) and sold it mid 2015 for a $1.6 billion profit. Momentum stocks that run one year don’t tend to repeat the following year.

  7. sunsetbernie - 8 years ago

    Please fix the title of this article…

  8. freerange5 - 8 years ago

    Typically, selling stocks on or near the end of the year is done for tax purposes.

  9. The world will be a far better place when Carl Icahn, vulture capitalist, is in his grave.

  10. PFesser - 8 years ago

    Thank god. I’ll give Tim one thing: he makes his own decisions, and crybabies/attention-seekers like Icahn just cannot tolerate being ignored.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.