Tim Cook Says He Understands Apple Share Price Concerns

Apple CEO Tim Cook has stressed that he understands shareholders’ concerns about the company’s falling stock price amid growing discontent among investors.

Speaking at the firm’s annual shareholder meeting, Cook urged for a focus on the long term, promising that revenue and profit would increase.

He added that the company was working on new products, but did not reveal any details, something that is unlikely to ease the uncertainty over Apple’s future plans. The company’s next major product is widely believed to be a smart watch, possibly called the iWatch.

Apple shareholders meeting

Cook and the entire Apple board were re-elected to their positions, despite many shareholders wanting more of the firm’s estimated $137 billion cash and securities reserves to compensate for the declining share price.

These calls are being led by David Einhorn, a hedge fund manager at Greenlight Capital, which wants Apple to issue ‘preferred shares’ that guarantee a regular flat return indefinitely that is paid in preference to ordinary stock, something that would make ordinary shares more sensitive to Apple’s profitability.

Einhorn won a legal victory last week that secured an injunction that invalidated a shareholder vote that would prevent Apple from issuing such shares in the future. Cook told shareholders that the company was in “very, very active discussions” about sharing some of Apple’s cash reserves, despite previously branding the lawsuit as a “silly distraction.”

Apple’s share price has been hit by fears that the mobile phone market is saturating and that it has run out of investment opportunities. It currently dominates the tablet market and is the second largest producer of smartphones in the world, but it has faced increased competition in both spheres from the likes of Samsung and Amazon.

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