Ahead of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Annual Shareholder Meeting, Einhorn Claims a Victory

What really matters
As an Apple investor, I very much side with Einhorn that something must be done to broaden Apple’s investor base to include value-oriented investors and that Apple simply has more cash than it knows what to do with. I also wholeheartedly agree with Cook that this whole lawsuit is a waste of energy, since it’s much ado about nothing. It’s not unreasonable to think that it’s all part of an elaborate plan to help prop up shares by heating up and further publicizing the iDividend discussion, in which case the end goal is in line with investor interests. After all, when Einhorn speaks, stocks move.

Apple has already acknowledged that the company is in “active discussions” about giving more back, which the company confirmed just hours after he made his rounds with media interviews. In that case, the mission of sparking more conversation has already been accomplished. The rest of it — the proxy lawsuit or the specific way that Apple chooses to return more cash — is all just noise.

Make no mistake: Apple has to increase its payout. It simply has no choice at this point, since the company has acknowledged it has more cash than it needs — a point it reached a year and $40 billion ago. The only questions that remain are when and how, but the if was decided long ago.

With that in mind, it should be quite interesting indeed what Apple has to say at the annual meeting on Wednesday.

The article Ahead of Apple’s Annual Shareholder Meeting, Einhorn Claims a Victory originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Evan Niu, CFA.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.