Monday
Another week, another bad start. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) clearly had the Monday blues, as it fell almost 1.8 percent to $442.80 to start another week on a bad note. Most watchers were trying to analyze how the court decision from Friday that stopped the company’s preferred share proposal from going to vote would affect Apple. Here were the top stories around the stock on the day:
Apple Changes Proxy
Apple has withdrawn the preferred stock proposal from its annual shareholders meeting proxy after being on the losing end of a court decision regarding it on Friday. A Manhattan district court ordered an injunction on the proposal at the request of the hedge fund Greenlight Capital. “We are disappointed with the court’s ruling,” Apple said in a statement. “Proposal #2 is part of our efforts to further enhance corporate governance and serve our shareholders’ best interests. Unfortunately, due to today’s decision, shareholders will not be able to vote on Proposal #2 at our annual meeting next week.”
Federal judge Richard Sullivan ruled in favor of Greenlight after ascertaining the proposal improperly bundled unrelated terms together… (Read more)
A Target Cut
With its stock seemingly stuck around the $450 mark, Apple has received a price target reduction from analysts at Needham & Co. While the research firm reiterated its Buy rating on the iPhone maker’s stock in a note to clients on Monday, it cut its target from $750 to $710. Most of the decline came from falling Mac sales, the firm said. According to Needham analyst Charlie Wolf, Apple’s performance in the second half of last year included “cross currents that both increased and decreased the value of the components” in the firm’s valuation model for the company… (Read more)
iPhone Victory
Apple is the most reliable smartphone manufacturer among its other industry-leading rivals, according to a new report from independent troubleshooting website FixYa. The iPhone maker’s statistics make it nearly three times more reliable than Samsung (SSNLF.PK), five times more reliable than Nokia (NYSE:NOK), and 27 times more reliable than Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) unit Motorola. FixYa, which calls itself the leading product Q&A destination on the web and mobile, analyzed 722,558 troubleshooting requests along with the ratio of market share for each vendor and assigned a final score to each… (Read more)
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Tuesday
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw some late action, sparked by a tweet, to reverse losses from earlier and end the day 1.4 percent up at $448.97. Here’s a cheat sheet to the top stories around the stock on the day:
A Stock Split on Way?
Doug Kass has hardly been an Apple fan in the recent past, but the Seabreeze Partners president made a prediction on Tuesday that sent the iPhone maker’s stock bouncing up. Kass said Apple was likely to announce a stock split at Wednesday’s annual shareholders meeting, adding that he held long positions in the company.
“High above the Alps my Gnome is hearing a rumor that Apple will announce a stock split at tomorrow’s shareholder meeting,” Kass tweeted.
While it’s not clear what, if anything, Apple has in store for shareholders at the meeting as far as capital allocation goes, several people believe the company can’t get away with doing nothing for too long anymore… (Read more)
Waving the White Flag
Apple has decided to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed the company’s in-app purchase policy did not do enough to prevent children from using their parents’ accounts. While the deal has yet to be finalized, Apple agreed to pay each class member with a $5 iTunes gift card, account credit, or a cash payment for claims over $30. With Apple prepared to send email notices to “over 23 million iTunes account holders who made a Game Currency purchase in one or more Qualified Apps,” the company may possibly end up paying a total of around $100 million… (Read more)
New Buyers Love the iPhone
The iPhone was the most acquired smartphone in the U.S. last year, with various versions of the Apple device taking four of the top five spots, according to comScore. Apple displaced devices belonging to HTC and BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) from the 2011 list, the report added. Samsung’s (SSNLF.PK) Galaxy S III also proved to be popular, ending up in fifth spot behind the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 5 — in that order… (Read more)
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Wednesday
It was big day for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), with its annual shareholders meeting set to take place at the company’s headquarters. While most of the talk around the company centered on the developments at the meeting, the stock ended just under 1 percent down at $444.57. Here’s a cheat sheet to the top stories around it on the day:
Content Shareholders
The continued sell-off in Apple over the last few months may tell a different story, but the company’s investors appeared amenable to most management decisions during its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday. While the company did not announce any specific decisions related to capital allocation and other itchy issues of the last few days, chief executive did Tim Cook did repeat his assertion that the board was in the process of announcing a change. Apparently that was enough for shareholders.
“I strongly believe it was a silly sideshow, regardless of how the judge ruled,” Cook said, referring to the court case the company lost to Greenlight Capital regarding a vote on preferred stock. Apple was forced to take the proposal off its meeting proxy. “I don’t think the issue of returning cash to shareholders is silly – we’re seriously considering it,” Cook added… (Read more)
Long-Term Focus
Apple’s falling share price has been alarming fact for its shareholders and has been put under many a magnifying glass over the last few months. On Wednesday, at the company’s annual meeting, chief executive Tim Cook gave the insider’s perspective on it. Cook said that while he understood why shareholders would be disappointed by the 36-percent drop since mid-September, a focus on the longer term may help ease concerns. “I don’t like it either,” Cook said about the share price drop. “The board doesn’t like it. The management team doesn’t like it. But we’re focused on the longer term”… (Read more)
Lost Appeal
Apple’s appeal to reduce the fine or start a new trial in its patent-infringement loss to Internet security software firm VirnetX (AMEX:VHC) has been denied, with a judge finding the $368.16 million punishment for the iPhone maker appropriate. U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis had ruled in November that VirnetX’s claim that Apple’s FaceTime video chatting feature violated the former’s virtual private network patents held true. David ruled that Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Mac computers infringed on four VirnetX patents. The firm had first filed the case back in November 2011, after Apple launched the iPhone 4S… (Read more)
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Thursday
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shed 0.71 percent on Thursday to end at $441.40. Here is a cheat sheet to the top stories surrounding the stock on the day:
Leap’s iPhone Pain
A partnership with Apple is not serving Leap Wireless (NASDAQ:LEAP) as well as the operator would have hoped. Leap, whose prepaid service Cricket started carrying the iPhone in June last year, said in a securities filing that it only expected to sell about half the devices it committed to in the first year of its agreement with Apple. Leap said it could end up with $100 million worth of unsold iPhones by June, though it added that it was working to improve sales with marketing and financing options for buyers.
Leap spokesman Gregory Lund said the company was in discussions with Apple. Lund said Leap had also seen lower-than-expected overall customer additions in the fourth quarter. The news would also be an upsetting one for Apple, which has been dealing with its own concerns over slowed iPhone sales… (Read more)
New Company Rule
Apple executives must hold triple their base salary in company stock, according to a new rule the iPhone maker introduced earlier this month and was detailed in a corporate governance notice on its website. The requirement was implemented on February 6. Executive officers will have five years to satisfy the requirement. The company’s chief executive officer would have to hold 10 times the annual base salary, while board directors would need to hold five times their annual retainer. The rule is extremely interesting because the company recommended investors oppose a very similar measure proposed by an individual shareholder at the annual meeting this week… (Read more)
Tokyo Win for Apple
Apple can keep selling its iPhones and iPads in Japan after a Tokyo court ruled in its favor in a 2011 patent lawsuit filed by rival Samsung (SSNLF.PK). In what is the latest of several stages and rounds in the global patent-infringement battle between the two competitors, the Korean company had tried to get an injunction on several Apple products by citing violation of patented data transmission technology. However, the Tokyo District Court rejected the request after ruling that Samsung had not tried “sincerely” enough to try and negotiate a licensing deal with the iPhone maker for the patents in question… (Read more)
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Friday
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 2.48 percent on Friday to close at $430.47, touching a new 52-week low in the process. Here are the top stories that moved the stock on the day:
Apple’s New Low
There is still no indication how bad things will get for Apple before they start getting better. The selling pressure that has refused to leave the stock’s side over the last few months was still going strong on Friday, and it pushed the company to a new notable low. In mid-morning trading, Apple briefly touched $431.89 — the stock’s lowest point since January 24, 2012, when it closed at $420.50 in anticipation of the company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report. 
Apple shares have dropped more than 19 percent over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 10.9 percent in the same period. The stock has fallen more than 37 percent since closing at a record high of $702.10 in September as of the close of trading on Thursday. Worries that sales of the company’s bestseller, the iPhone, are falling, as well as concerns about possibly dropping gross margins have taken a toll… (Read more)
Victory is Throttled
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh has struck down more than 40 percent of the $1.05 billion in damages a jury awarded to Apple in its patent infringement case against Samsung (SSNLF.PK). Koh also said Samsung deserved a new trial on infringement claims for a selection of smartphones. Koh rejected Apple’s request to increase the damages, saying that even the original amount was heavily disputed and that the jury was not bound to accept either side’s damages estimate. “It is not the proper role of the court to second-guess the jury’s factual determination as to the proper amount of compensation,” Koh said… (Read more)
Avoiding Embarrassment
Apple, definitely not in need of any more bad press at the moment, is trying its best to get a consumer privacy lawsuit off its chest. The company argued in a district court on Thursday that a group of users alleging that certain apps were passing personal information to third-party advertisers without their consent had not been able to prove their claims. The case was first filed in December 2010 by two separate groups of users who claimed Apple collected data, such as geographical locations, through external iPhone and iPad apps that the company had approved, even after users said they didn’t want to share the information… (Read more)
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