Hmm, What Is Apple Doing?

Q4 is always the highest iPhone sales. That’s not news.

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See, I didn’t write this

https://money.usnews.com/investing/stock-market-news/articles/2018-01-17/apple-inc-aapl-stock

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/apple-expects-38-billion-tax-bill-on-overseas-repatriated-cash

No special dividend or buyback.

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That sounds pretty fishy. Did Apple not have the money to invest before the tax reform? Seems like cook is just looking for things to spend the money. Please don’t spend 10b on another stupid spaceship.

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Also not buying Netflix or Tesla it seems. :smile:

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I am totally fine if they spend $10b building another spaceship in Almaden Valley.:rofl:

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It’s more than the money spent. Ive was consumed by the spaceship project. Would you rather have Ive designing doorknobs or the next Apple product?

Are those iKnobs or AppleKnobs?

Design for a single door handle took more than a year and a half to approve, and there could be no rise at the base of a doorway. So we learn from a Reuters report, based mostly on anonymous sources who had signed confidentiality agreements, on the exceptionally nit-picking design of the reportedly almost-done new headquarters building estimated to cost $5 billion.

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Most of Apple’s cash was outside the US. They were borrowing to do the share buybacks, because the cash wasn’t in the US to do it. It makes way more sense to borrow at a tiny interest rate than pay huge taxes on the cash. So yes, they did need this to have cash in the US for investment.

Apple can borrow at 1 or 2%. I am just saying where did all these projects come from all of a sudden? Can’t apple borrow at 2% to fund them? Do they suddenly have negative NPV with 2% interests payment (but not with repatriation taxes somehow?)

I guess most of these projects were planned ahead of time anyway and they don’t cost much for apples size. Cook just conveniently lump them into the repatriation news to justify not issuing special dividend. “See? We are doing something useful with the money. Let us keep it. “

The reason is the new tax law plus timing. The cost overseas especially in China has been rising steadily. If this trend continue, it is only a matter of time before it makes sense for companies to look elsewhere. The new tax law might be the catalyst for this transition to make economic sense.

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Based on Apple’s own disclosure, 94% of it’s cash is outside the US. That’s because all the HQ expenses, R&D expenses, and dividend are funded from US profits. A majority of Apple’s revenue is outside the US, and it doesn’t have a lot of expenses in most of those countries. The tax law change lets them bring that money back to the US to invest here vs. investing it where it currently is.

Sure that money isn’t gonna cover all those replacement batteries? :grinning:

They’re making it rain RSUs

An email obtained by Axios said the stock awards would be available "to all individual contributors and management up to and including Senior Managers worldwide, [b]oth full-time and part-time.”

Both you and wuqijun would receive the $2500 RSUs have you guys still there but only a drop in a bucket in your net worth :zipper_mouth_face:

Apparently, Apple classifies its employees into three buckets:
Leadership (SVPs reporting directly to CEO)
Middle Management (Directors & above but below Leadership)
Managers & Professionals (Individual Contributors to Senior Managers)

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AAPL market cap is at $924B right now. Another 8%, it would be the first(?) trillion dollar company!

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Despite the hype, Apple would not be the first publicly traded company to reach a trillion dollars in market value. That distinction belongs to oil and gas producer PetroChina, which briefly topped $1 trillion on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2007.

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