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Special Report: Tim Cook fields questions on Apple dividends, a stock split, iTunes content deals - Page 2

post #41 of 54
2/23/12 at 5:31pm
My thoughts on this issue are very different. I think Apple is in the process of totally changing what the company is about.

In 5 years, I would be surprised if hardware accounts for the major portion of Apple's revenues. I think it will still account for a major share of profits, but the revenues will come from other areas - primarily services and content.

Apple is already into iAd, and it is just a matter of time before they enter search to really compete with Google. It makes tremendous sense for Apple to enter search as a hobby. If nothing else, it will spook the shit out of Google.

Expect iTunes to become the iShop - a bigger and more diversified Amazon than Amazon.com. It will offer books, magazines, music, movies, TV shows, educational content, electronics, etc. But the other things will be even bigger - Siri based services like Ticket reservations, hotel booking, and possibly a foray into selling general products using Siri - basically everything under the sun, etc. It will also enter financial services in a major way with NFC based wallet. They will be forced to compete with Amazon to put pressure on Amazon in the tablet space.

At the end of the day, Amazon.com is a logistics game. And Tim Cook is a genius in logistics. Apple is going to do this, just to ensure that Amazon focuses less on the Kindle and more on its core business.
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post #42 of 54
2/23/12 at 5:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macarena View Post

My thoughts on this issue are very different. I think Apple is in the process of totally changing what the company is about.

In 5 years, I would be surprised if hardware accounts for the major portion of Apple's revenues. I think it will still account for a major share of profits, but the revenues will come from other areas - primarily services and content.

Apple is already into iAd, and it is just a matter of time before they enter search to really compete with Google. It makes tremendous sense for Apple to enter search as a hobby. If nothing else, it will spook the shit out of Google.

Expect iTunes to become the iShop - a bigger and more diversified Amazon than Amazon.com. It will offer books, magazines, music, movies, TV shows, educational content, electronics, etc. But the other things will be even bigger - Siri based services like Ticket reservations, hotel booking, and possibly a foray into selling general products using Siri - basically everything under the sun, etc. It will also enter financial services in a major way with NFC based wallet. They will be forced to compete with Amazon to put pressure on Amazon in the tablet space.

At the end of the day, Amazon.com is a logistics game. And Tim Cook is a genius in logistics. Apple is going to do this, just to ensure that Amazon focuses less on the Kindle and more on its core business.

I think you are wrong on every account. As we've seen Apple's SW and services are helping to tie in their HW sales but they've moved even further into offering their soft side for lower rates (as with iAd) or even free (with the move from MobileMe to iCloud). The trend is to use this other parts to make more money on HW. They lead in the PMP, handset, tablet, notebook PC and desktop PC markets. Yet by comparison they make very little from their soft areas and I don't see that changing. The next step for Apple to make the AppleTV into the 5th major arm of their business.

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post #43 of 54
2/23/12 at 5:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post

No, your mother is an exception.

According to the proxy statement issued in January, there were only 28,500 shareholders of record as of late December 2011. My guess is that a healthy chunk of those shareholders were actually Apple employees, via the company's Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), mostly owning small quantities since it's a percent of the employee's salary. So let's say that there are about 25,000 non-employee shareholders.

70% of the float is held by institutional investors, guys like Fidelity, Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street. According to Yahoo Finance, there are about 1700 institutional holders.

So really, there are probably about 23,300 non-employee retail shareholders. In a country of over 313 million people, that means one out every 13400 people is a direct shareholder of AAPL. That's not even 0.0075% of the population.

That ignores the effect of mutual funds.

The majority of Apple shareholders are institutions - which means that anyone investing in that institution is also an Apple shareholder- indirectly.
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post #44 of 54
2/23/12 at 5:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macarena View Post

My thoughts on this issue are very different. I think Apple is in the process of totally changing what the company is about.

In 5 years, I would be surprised if hardware accounts for the major portion of Apple's revenues. I think it will still account for a major share of profits, but the revenues will come from other areas - primarily services and content.

Apple is already into iAd, and it is just a matter of time before they enter search to really compete with Google. It makes tremendous sense for Apple to enter search as a hobby. If nothing else, it will spook the shit out of Google.

Expect iTunes to become the iShop - a bigger and more diversified Amazon than Amazon.com. It will offer books, magazines, music, movies, TV shows, educational content, electronics, etc. But the other things will be even bigger - Siri based services like Ticket reservations, hotel booking, and possibly a foray into selling general products using Siri - basically everything under the sun, etc. It will also enter financial services in a major way with NFC based wallet. They will be forced to compete with Amazon to put pressure on Amazon in the tablet space.

At the end of the day, Amazon.com is a logistics game. And Tim Cook is a genius in logistics. Apple is going to do this, just to ensure that Amazon focuses less on the Kindle and more on its core business.

Apple uses the software and services to drive the hardware sales. Look again.

Proud AAPL stock owner.

 

GOA

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Proud AAPL stock owner.

 

GOA

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post #45 of 54
2/23/12 at 6:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post

I am against dividends.

If somebody needs a dividend as an incentive to hold Apple stock, then they should go out and buy some other stock which suits them better.

I am currently undecided as to what I think about stock splits. It seems to be more psychological than anything else.

Its not a question of "somebody", its a market cap problem. It would be better if new funds could buy Apple because lots of funds are already max out. The bigger the market cap gets, the more difficult it becomes to move the stock.
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post #46 of 54
2/23/12 at 6:57pm
I'm not on the dividends bandwagon, much less the stock buyback caravan. But if Apple is going to pay out dividends, I sure as hell want my ordinary shares to be in on that.
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post #47 of 54
2/23/12 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mknopp View Post

I have a hard time believing that they couldn't setup an a la carte system. However, I think that they should focus more on setting up a subscription service comparable to that offered by Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu Plus now. Oh, and for those of you who don't think that this is possible. Consider that for that $100 billion in cash they could come close to buying all four major networks.

Yet another hint that Apple will market its TV with cable/telco partners.
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post #48 of 54
2/23/12 at 7:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tundraboy View Post

I'm not on the dividends bandwagon, much less the stock buyback caravan. But if Apple is going to pay out dividends, I sure as hell want my ordinary shares to be in on that.

Yeah, what they can do is declare a special dividend to everyone if they want and give some of the money back. It doesn't have to be a quarterly dividend. Microsoft did something similar a few years back where they gave a $3/share special dividend (which is enormous with that many shares outstanding btw) and got rid of a lot of excess cash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_dividend
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post #49 of 54
2/23/12 at 7:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post

Lawyers' fees; investment bankers' fees; (perhaps) more hassles with shareholder record-keeping...

Why only 5x? Why not 50x?

5 x seems logical, 50x seems silly, just my opinion of course.
Been using Apples since 1978 and Macs since 1984
Long on AAPL so biased. Strong advocate for separation of technology and politics on AI.
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Been using Apples since 1978 and Macs since 1984
Long on AAPL so biased. Strong advocate for separation of technology and politics on AI.
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post #50 of 54
2/23/12 at 10:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post

This was the question/suggestion of a stockholder at the meeting. It was not the word of Tim Cook or anyone at Apple. Remain calm.

I like your style.
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post #51 of 54
2/23/12 at 11:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta View Post

That ignores the effect of mutual funds.

The majority of Apple shareholders are institutions - which means that anyone investing in that institution is also an Apple shareholder- indirectly.

No, I did not ignore mutual funds since I specifically used the word "direct" in my comment.

Indirect shareholders such as those holding mutual funds or ETFs do not count as shareholders of record. They do not receive proxy ballots.

The mutual fund's company is the shareholder. The mutual fund investor owns a share of the mutual fund which represents a collection of various investments, some of which may not be equities (they could be bonds, money market, etc.).

Being an indirect shareholder via a mutual fund and being a direct shareholder are not the same thing; the two roles do not offer the same privileges.
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post #52 of 54
2/24/12 at 5:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chabig View Post

I disagree. Even at $500 per share, the minimum investment is $500. So a split is only really catering to people who have less than $500 to invest, and that's a very small audience.

Also a pointless audiance. Last time I looked into buying some APPL anything under a £4k investment seemed pointless. The return would be so low particularly when you take into account the fee's for buying and selling it just wouldn't be worth it.

That being said im from the UK so also had to take into account the money I could loose through exchange rate fluctuations as well, so if your in the US under $4k would probably still be ok. Under $500 unless you were going for a 5 - 10 year investment, is really likely to be pointless.
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post #53 of 54
2/28/12 at 5:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DESuserIGN View Post

If you want preferred stock, just buy it.
Preferred stock is really a different instrument from common stock, but if you want it, it can be purchased.

I'm missing something here, that's not even possible, Apple holds them all. Are they even available to purchase?

http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Apple...referred_Stock
Quote:
The Company has five million shares of authorized preferred stock, none of which is issued or outstanding. Under the terms of the Company’s Restated Articles of Incorporation, the Board of Directors is authorized to determine or alter the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of the Company’s authorized but unissued shares of preferred stock.

Not issued or outstanding sounds like they're not in circulation or available to get, the definitions I see seem to confirm that.

http://investor.apple.com/faq.cfm
Quote:
Is there currently any preferred stock outstanding?
No.
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post #54 of 54
2/28/12 at 9:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post

I'm missing something here, that's not even possible, Apple holds them all.]

If Apple holds them all they would just paying dividends to themselves in one scenario. That would just increase their cash holdings even more.

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