Apple (AAPL) never ceases to be able to crank out headlines – to the point that it can often be hard to keep up with what’s going on with the stock. Have no fear, though. We’ve rounded up the biggest news surrounding Apple stock lately.
Here’s what you need to know about AAPL right now.
Inside Baseball
The media was buzzing yesterday after an Apple filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed the company’s new head of retail Angela Ahrendts is slated to get more than 113,000 shares of Apple stock over the next four years. Tally it up, and that batch is worth a whopping $68 million.
That’s not all, though. The first batch of AAPL stock shares is set to be paid out on June 1, meaning Ahrendts will be walking away with a bonus worth nearly $10 million after just one month on the job.
Must be nice.
Apple Stock
Things are going to get even nicer for Ahrendts if AAPL stock continues its recent momentum. Shares of Apple stock have gained double-digits since the company’s quarterly earnings came out on April 23 … along with news of an additional $30 billion in buybacks and an upped dividend.
In fact, AAPL hit $600 per share in trading on Monday for the first time since late 2012. Shares have dropped off since then, closing at $595 by Wednesday. And as Seth Feigerman summed it up over at Mashable, Apple stock is still “well below its high of $705 right after the iPhone 5 was released in September 2012. A series of supply issues, executive shakeups, growing competition and concerns about Apple’s ability to innovate with new products helped to drag the stock down to less than $400 a share at one point.”
But the recent momentum for Apple stock is still impressive considering most tech stocks have languished in recent weeks. Besides, Dan Gallagher of The Wall Street Journalthinks this is just the beginning, writing “Apple’s Stock Ready for Launch Sequence.”
And he could be right, considering shares of AAPL stock have been on fire … and it hasn’t even unveiled its biggest products of the year yet.
Apple iPhone
Still, that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill surrounding the release of the new Apple iPhone 6. A couple of recent reports have folks chatting about the possibility that iPhone 6 production is well underway. Meanwhile, another report shows that Apple is planning an “enormous” iPhone push this week — just a few weeks before its big Worldwide Developers Conference. Supposedly, Apple has plans to contact customers eligible to upgrade to an iPhone 5c or iPhone 5s in order to push new sales.
Apple Patents
Finally, in a bit of older news, Apple stock investors likely noticed that the company won another lawsuit against rival Samsung (SSNLF). After a few days of deliberation, a San Jose court found Samsung guilty of patent infringement … again.
But don’t get too excited for AAPL. As Chris Taylor at Mashable put it, “This time around, the result isn’t as clear cut, the award isn’t as large, and Samsung managed to snatch one small victory from the jaws of defeat.”
That small victory? Samsung only has to pay $119.6 million for infringing on two patents, while Apple was asking for $2.19 billion for infringing on five patents.
That’s the scoop on Apple stock this week. Keep an eye on the upcoming WWDC for more news from AAPL land.
As of this writing, Robert Martin did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
