Icahn talk ups Apple’s stock

SAN FRANCISCO – With its market value still more than 30 percent below its peak, Apple Inc. has drawn the gaze of investor activist Carl Icahn, who announced a “large position” on the iPhone maker’s stock on Tuesday afternoon.

The announcement – made through a pair of tweets – gave a notable boost to Apple’s stock, which was up more than 4.7 percent to $489.57 by the closing bell. The shares were up about 1.8 percent prior to Icahn’s announcement.

“We currently have a large position in Apple. We believe the company to be extremely undervalued,” Icahn tweeted.

In another message, he said he had a “a nice conversation with (Apple CEO) Tim Cook today,” adding that they “discussed my opinion that a larger buyback should be done now.” Icahn added that, “We plan to speak again shortly.”

Apple, which reported a total cash hoard of more than $146 billion by the end of June, has long been under pressure to return more cash to shareholders, especially over the last year, as its sales growth has slowed and earnings have begun to decline. That has contributed to a sharp decline in the company’s market value, as its stock peaked just above the $700 mark in late September and was on a mostly downward slope for the first half of this year.

The company began a $10 billion stock buyback last year and boosted that program to $60 billion on April 23. The company has not communicated plans to raise that level further.

Apple’s shares have risen of late, gaining nearly 18 percent since late July on rising anticipation of the next round of expected product launches this fall.