Cook: Forget About Our Share Price, Apple Has Some Great Stuff Coming
If you’re an Apple shareholder dismayed by the downward trajectory of the company’s stock price lately, CEO Tim Cook feels your pain.
Remarking on the value of Apple’s stock, which has plummeted by roughly a third since reaching a high last fall, Cook said the company is obviously unhappy with its price. “I don’t like it either,” he told attendees at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting today. “The board doesn’t like it. The management team doesn’t like it.”
Cook urged patience, saying that if the company continues to focus on making great products, revenue and profit will follow. “What we are focused on is the long term; this has always been the secret of Apple,” he said, adding that the company has “some great stuff” in the pipeline.
Whether that’s the much rumored Apple Television or that so-called “iWatch” the company has been testing, Cook wouldn’t say. “Obviously, we’re looking at new categories,” Cook told shareholders. “We don’t talk about them, but we’re looking at them. … We invest in things we think are great to do.”
Beyond that, Apple’s shareholder meeting was pretty much a snoozer. As expected, the company’s board and management won strong support (Cook garnered a 99.1 percent approval rating). As expected, the issue of a lawsuit that forced Apple to remove a proposal from its proxy late last week was broached. And, as expected, Cook dismissed the suit with same rhetoric he used at the Goldman Sachs conference earlier this month. “I strongly believe it was a silly sideshow, regardless of how the judge ruled,” Cook said, adding later: “I don’t think the issue of returning cash to shareholders is silly, though. We’re seriously considering it.”
Previously: Apple’s Shareholder Meeting Likely a Snoozer