Carl Icahn bought more Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock yesterday, according to the man himself. The hedge fund veteran told CNBC on Wednesday that he has purchased more shares in the Cupertino company after it traded below $470. Icahn called the additional investment in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) a “no brainer.”
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares fell by around 5% on Wednesday after the company announced a new smart phone that failed to meet the expectations of the market. The iPhone 5c cost more than investors had anticipated. It showed that the company was not aiming for a bigger chunk of emerging markets. That was what the price targets had been based on and analysts downgraded the company.
Icahn getting on board with Apple
The $465 price per share in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is lower that what Icahn paid for his last big investment in the company. Back in August Icahn called the company “extremely undervalued” and invested a huge amount of money in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares.
Icahn isn’t at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) because he loves the iPhone. He’s there because he wants to make money for his investors. He doesn’t need to do that by getting the shares of the company to increase. He just wants Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to redistribute some of its massive cash pile.
Unless Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is planning on starting a war, there’s very little the company could ever spend $147 billion on. Icahn wants that money returned to shareholders in the form of a bigger stock buy back. He’s even having dinner with Tim Cook about it.
Cheap stock, not cheap iPhones
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is trading at a P/E of less than 12 right now. That means that very little growth is priced in. Icahn thinks that makes the company “extremely cheap.” A cheap iPhone would probably have driven the price of the stock up. When you account for the $147 billion of cash Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is sitting on, the company has the multiple of an industrial stock, although Alcoa (NYSE:AA) is trading at 85X.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock is cheap by almost any metric, and it’s certainly cheap compared to the other tech growth stocks like Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX). Unfortunately the market has not responded to the pricing in a while. The market isn’t run by calculators. Despite how inexpensive it looks Apple stock could stay cheap for a long time.
