Everything went Apple's way at the annual shareholders meeting
Apple's annual shareholders' meeting concluded with support for all of its proposals, and rejection of shareholder proposals, despite controversies and disagreements.
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Apple held its annual shareholder meeting on February 28, with shareholder proposals pushing for transparency from Apple on AI and addressing concerns held by conservative politicians.
The shareholders of Apple have voted in favor of the company's proposals. This includes approving the appointment of Ernst & Young as Apple's independent registered public accounting firm for 2024. The management proposals, which consisted of the board member vote and compensation vote, were also voted for.
The annual shareholder meeting exists so Apple and shareholders can discuss how the company is operating and meeting goals. This year, shareholders voted in line with Apple's wishes on the following shareholder proposals.
EEO Policy Risk Report
The National Center for Public Policy Research asked Apple to provide a report on the potential hazards related to the exclusion of "viewpoint" and "ideology" from its EEO. It stated there were concerns that Apple's policy may not forbid discrimination based on viewpoint or ideology.
Apple recommended voting against the proposition because a report would not provide material additional information. The company believes it already fosters an environment where every idea is valued and everyone is included.
Report on Ensuring Respect for Civil Liberties
The American Family Association worried about Apple limiting content access within its online services. It accused Apple of helping the Chinese Communist Party by removing popular Quran and Bible applications from the App Store in China. Conservative lawmakers have also criticized Apple's alleged threat to remove X as a "raw exercise of monopolistic power".
Apple's board advised voting against this proposal, noting that it is already beholden to local laws. Apple states it already works to prevent illegal content on the App Store by detailing its standards and complying with government orders.
Racial and Gender Pay Gaps
Apple's board advised voting against the proposal that would have required greater disclosure of employee diversity, stating that the Inclusion and Diversity website already provided comprehensive information. The company also claimed to have achieved gender pay equity on a global scale, as well as pay equity by race and ethnicity in the United States.
Report on Use of AI
AFL-CIO Equity Index Funds asked Apple for a transparency report on their use of AI and ethical guidelines. Unregulated AI could lead to discrimination, mass layoffs, or false information dissemination. Guidelines ensure safe and ethical AI use.
Apple's board advised voting against the proposal as it was deemed too broad and had the potential to reveal strategic plans that could harm their competitive position. Moreover, Apple stated it already provides resources and transparency to use artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Apple CEO Tim Cook effectively repeated what he had previously said on the matter, saying that he was excited to reveal Apple's plans later in 2024. We expect these announcements at WWDC in June.
Congruency Report on Privacy and Human Rights
National Legal and Policy Center asked Apple to report on enforcing its global privacy and human rights policies. The request referred to limiting AirDrop in China and stopping sales in Russia, which do not align with Apple's policies.
Apple's board advised voting down the proposal as it wouldn't provide new information. The company stated that it is transparent about its approach to complex situations while respecting human rights.
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Comments
Human rights? Liberties? Gender pay gap?? All those things are really essential and should have been executed from the beginning on.
What did AAPL say how to boost their stock price and how to generate their sales with "AI" etc.?
No highlights in terms of their stategies??
Ridiculous and laughable.
Apple has maintained, as long as I've been aware of (> 25 years), that it obeys the laws in any country in which it sells it products. Nothing new to see there, so move along. If you want proactive, note that Apple has more than once sent its CEO to negotiate face-to-face with Chinese government officials to prevent even more odious restrictions being placed on Apple's operations in China (e.g. data sharing).
Apple's share price is boosted by introducing products and services that turn out to be popular — not by talking about them at once a year shareholder's meetings.
If, by the way, you're an Apple shareholder, the current share prices appear to be a bit of a bargain, so I'm guessing you could find a buyer if you want to unload yours.
I think it is about time to replace Tim Cook.
And you must be kidding if you are really serious about AAPL being a bargain.....
Apple isn't going to reveal internal secrets about what it is working on. It would endanger the products and shareholders know that.
I recommend reading up on these things. Apple publishes a lot of material that can tell you everything you need to know about how it conducts business.
Research and development on Project Titan isn't "wasted." If anything it has given Apple a leg up in developing AI and ML. You can't drive a self driving car without software. And the talent on those projects can bring what they've learned to the greater AI effort.
Services growth is great, but revenue increase is tied to hardware, primarily iPhone, as it always has been.
If anything, Apple is in trouble if it can't replicate Cook's success after he retires. He's going to be a tough act to follow, tougher than Jobs.
it is not bad to support human rights, liberties, gender pay gaps. Those actions are not only addressed to Apple, but to all existing enterprises worldwide.
Those actions are essential/basic and should be executed by all enterprises as I mentioned.
Why must basic terms be highlighted in an event, which is only scehduled once per year?
I disagree that Apple is massively undervalued.
Apple has minus growth rates. Apple just made +2% revenue growth in 2023 (YoY).
Their EPS is rising thanks to their massive buybacks, but other tech companies increase their EPS even with less buybacks.
iPad, Mac, wearables note minus growth rates.
iPhone has a single digit growth.
Service now has a low double digit growth.
This performance does not justify the current forward P/E x30.
Alphabet has lower P/E than AAPL.
Even META has lower P/E than AAPL.
Nvidia has forward P/E x32.
If you still say Apple is massively undervalued, then Nvidia is massively x 200 undervalued than Apple.
I merely want to know from Apple how Apple is preparing for their current headwinds.
A lack of transparencies is the reason why Apple is tanking and tanking.
Even MSFT, META, NVDA give guidances and full transparencies with full confidence without disclosing any confidential related topics.
Why can´t Apple do that??
Look at their AppleCar project. Without knowing in detail, what´s going on, we get the information that it is cancelled.
What???!!!
And as far as "preparing for their current headwinds" they have this thing once a quarter where they file an incredible amount of paperwork with the SEC and discuss these things, at length. Since you're an investor, you might want to consider reading what they publish.
A claim that Apple is tanking because of a lack of transparency is ludicrous and not based in fact. Microsoft, Meta, and Nvidia disclose with the same transparencies, meaning none.
Yeah. These human/race related actions should be stopped as it has been discussed over a decade. Enough is enough.
Apple needs to drive other topics. Hereby, I see a lack of innovations already as Apple does not seem to know what topics should be discussed.
Again: Apple has stopped to grow.. +2% revenue growth is a peanut given the fact that we are talking about a company, which is compared with other big six companies as a part of Magnificant Seven in terms of their stock performace.
K-10 is followed up. But nothing found in terms of what I want to.
Microsoft, Meta, and Nvidia give transparencies, which DO MEAN a lot, because those transparencies are always linked to potential consequences that their stock price will be dragged down.
I will just give you an example:
Tim Cook spits that Apple is going to introduce "incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI". What is exactly incredible breakthrough?
Microsoft announces way way more in detail that Microsoft is going to use AI with their copilot at Teams. More inputs and more insights to investors.
You see the difference??
Since Apple has never given a forward guidance since Covid-19, Apple has a lack of confidence to drive their growth.
Just my 2 cents.
Tim is the greatest thing to have ever happened to Apple. Apple wouldn't be anywhere near what it is today without Tim at the top. He has done an absolute tremendous job at being CEO of the biggest company in the world (which he created BTW). I dare say that Tim is a better CEO than Steve Jobs was.
Your two cents is as worthless and factually devoid as you claim Apple's 2% gain YoY is. What you want to see in the 10K is not even close to a legal obligation, and if you think what Nvidia and Microsoft is saying is accurate disclosure, I have a bridge to sell you.
Enjoy shouting into the void.
As for discussing future products the Apple way has been to deliver before talking about what they are going deliver. Most companies have at some or many points in their existence pre-announced products or services that never came to fruition or not in the time table they stated. I'd rather the products roll out and be surprised than be disappointed when something announced for June does not come until August. Other companies would push out the partially completed software and hope no one notices since they met the goal.
Go.. The stock is tanking again till you get what you think it is undervalued.