mpantone

joe3x said:

Im just amazed that there are people living so close to the headquarters, look at the condos/houses in the corner of the photo.

retrogusto said:

I don't remember them ever announcing their results this late before. I wonder why it's so late this time. 

robertwalter said:

What is below the big skylights about every 45°?  Stairwells?

lkrupp said:

sog35 said:

carnegie said:

baconstang said:

How nice.   A tip for hitting a 52 week high?

These grants are more or less automatic based on an existing compensation plan for directors.

Each non-employee director (i.e. all of the directors other than Mr. Cook, because he's the CEO) is awarded $250,000 worth of RSUs on the date of Apple's annual meeting. They actually got fewer shares this year because the stock price was higher. Then again, the shares they were awarded last year were worth more when they vested (on February 1st) due to a higher stock price.

The total annual compensation for non-employee directors (other than the Chairman of the Board) is between $350,000 and $400,000, depending on which committees they chair. The Chairman of the Board's total annual compensation is around $550,000. 

Its nuts these people get paid hundreds of thousands for doing absolutely nothing. Well, maybe they meet once a year in a nice hotel. Ridiculous.

The Apple BOD do nothing. 

Their job is to oversee the CEO and top management to make sure they are performing their duties in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. Only the BOD can fire the CEO. Of course CEOs try to stack the BOD with members who share the CEO’s vision. Control your hate.

radarthekat said:

mpantone said:

radarthekat said:

mpantone said:

sog35 said:

StrangeDays said:

mpantone said:

For me, I no longer want to have any single company's stock be more than 6-7% of my portfolio. I sold a bunch of AAPL two years ago, one of the smartest things I've done. 

More than anything else, Buffett's substantial acquisition of AAPL is a clear indicator that Apple's days as a growth stock are over. It's a value stock in 2017.

How was divesting smart, considering you've lost wealth from it?

Do you know where he put that money he got from selling Apple? Those investments could have easily out performed Apple.

Two years ago AAPL was at $129. Today its $137. A 6% return. pitiful.

Google is up 45% in the same time period
Facebook up 70%
Microsoft 52%
Netflix 113%

Even the damn Nasdaq at 16% and S&P500 at 14% blew away Apple the last 2 years.

Sog35 is actually correct.

Since the start of 2015, AAPL has not been a particularly stellar investment. Only the recent run up has helped, but they still lag the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes since that time.

StrangeDays said:

mpantone said:

For me, I no longer want to have any single company's stock be more than 6-7% of my portfolio. I sold a bunch of AAPL two years ago, one of the smartest things I've done. 

More than anything else, Buffett's substantial acquisition of AAPL is a clear indicator that Apple's days as a growth stock are over. It's a value stock in 2017.

How was divesting smart, considering you've lost wealth from it?

Quite the contrary, I made far more from NFLX over the past 25 months than I would if I had stayed with AAPL even though my NFLX position is smaller that what I dumped in AAPL.

I sold much of my AAPL holdings in early February 2015 around $110 per share.

I also bought NFLX just about two weeks earlier and boy did those shares take off; the ROI on my NFLX holdings is +202%. And yes, I also added some more to my SPY and QQQ holdings at the time I sold AAPL in February 2015.

Let's say you sold $12K in AAPL in early 2015 and invested $4K in NFLX and $8K in SPY. Today the NFLX would be worth $12K and the SPY would be worth $9120. Your net gain would be $9120 ($8000 + $1120). If you kept all $12K in AAPL, you'd have $12,720, a net gain of $720 (not including AAPL's dividend payout, maybe $450). If you had put the entire $12K in NFLX, it would be worth $36K today.

I wish I had also purchased some AMZN at the time, but of the four FANG stocks, NFLX has performed the best since January 1st, 2015, even outperforming AMZN.

I still have some AAPL shares. Most likely I will not sell these, but I will end up donating occasionally to charity when I need to offset capital gains, something I expect I will need to do this year.

None of this has anything to do with Sog's previous contention that Cook should have been fired, except to those who believe CEOs should manage to the stock price.  

Read the quotes above carefully by clicking on the "Show previous quotes" hyperlink: I was not addressing Tim Cook's fitness to remain as Apple CEO nor do I care to do so at this time.
 
In the first part of my reply, I was merely responding to Sog35's comment that AAPL only gained 6% since early 2015 and that there were other investments that have performed far better since then. In this regard, Sog35 is correct. Sog35 actually happened to guess correctly one of the stocks that I had indeed put some of my proceeds into.

In the second and longer part of my reply I followed up by responding to StrangeDays who claimed that I had "lost wealth" [sic] by selling AAPL in early 2015.

I am happy I sold the bulk of my AAPL holdings in early 2015 and put the proceeds to better use. I am still happy to be an AAPL shareholder, I believe those shares are going to save my butt re: capital gains taxes for several years to come.

I answered the two comments sequentially.

As for the argument that Tim Cook should be fired for inability to increase shareholder value, I will leave that discussion for another day.

No commenter is required to answer all of the various discussion topics that come up in a thread. I chose not to address Tim Cook's performance as CEO. I did address the comments that I quoted. That's how the forum quoting system is intended for.

I wasn't attempting to imply anything about your stance regarding Cook's fitness for the job, but moreso trying to head off Sog using your post to justify his.  Sorry that I didn't qualify  it.  I'll be more clear next time.