Apple just unleashed the iPhone 5 on China today so things should be going really well for the company on Wall Street as well, but they’re not. According to initial reports, the debut of the iPhone 5 has been somewhat muted thanks to a snowstorm hitting Beijing and a pre-order requirement to prevent rioting.
Adding to Apple’s pain, the company’s stock hit a 10-month low today and is trading at $511.58 – the lowest its been since February.
Longtime Apple executive Bob Mansfield just had a big pay day, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mansfield just cashed in 35,000 shares of Apple stock valued at $582.21 per share, earning him $20.37 million.
After announcing his retirement but then staying on at Apple to lead the company’s mysterious new “Technologies” group, Mansfield now reports directly to CEO Tim Cook. He’s just as instrumental to the company’s success as ever.
Apple’s revenues, profit, and cash hoard continues to grow. Even though the amount of profits Apple earned in Q4 2012 is down from Q3, their stash of cash has grown. Looking at Apple’s growth over the last 15 years, it’s incredible to see how Apple continues to grow like crazy.
When Tim Cook jumped on stage yesterday and ran through all the little statistics about how extremely successful Apple’s been over the last few months, he put some added emphasis on the fact that Apple just sold their 100 millionth iPad.
100 million iPads in just over two years is absolutely nuts. 100 million of any product sold in two years is insane. But it turns out that analysts weren’t thrilled that Apple just sold their 100 millionth iPad two weeks ago, because it means iPad sales are starting to decline when analysts were expecting them to sell more.
Apple stock has been climbing rapidly towards $700 per share since the iPhone 5 was announced Wednesday, September 12th. Now, less than a week after the announcement from Apple, AAPL has hit $700 in after hours trading, marking an all-time high.
Despite iPhone 5 naysayers, Apple remains the most valuable company in the world by a large margin.
Apple announced a $45 billion stock dividend and repurchase plan back in March, and the company starts paying its investors today, August 16th. $2.65 per share will be payed out for all owned shares of record as of Monday, August 13th.
Today marks the first dividend Apple has payed out since 1995. If you own Apple stock, you should see the payment deposited in your brokerage account before the day is over.
Morgan Stanley: New regional carried deals help ensure iPhone growth
Next week, the iPhone will launch on three additional U.S. regional carriers. This move follows last month’s roll out to five regional carriers plus last year’s addition of C Spire and Puerto Rico-based Claro Puerto (Apple’s first deasl with regional carriers).
Apple’s regional expansion prompted Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty to issue a note to investors saying that the new partnerships will help ensure sustained iPhone growth. She also noted that she doesn’t expect to see carriers dropping subsidized pricing for the iPhone – a concern that has also made investors hesitant when it comes to Apple.
If you want to know what we really think the next iPad is going to be like, you need to give episode 2 of The CultCast a listen. The Cultcast is the new Cult of Mac podcast and also happens to be the best 30 minute conversation you’ll hear about Apple all week long.
You likey? Subscribe to The CultCast right now in iTunes and hear us apply our keen senses of reason and logic to all the iPad 3 rumors you’re still not tired of hearing.
Good news for Apple shareholders: stock reached an all-time high during mid-day trading today, peaking at $427.75 per share. The last record was set in October of 2011 at $426.70 per share. Despite some slightly tumultuous times on Wall Street after Apple failed to meet analyst expectations with its fourth-quarter earnings report, Apple stock has continued to climb to new heights year after year. The company will announce its earnings from the first-quarter of 2012 (or the 2011 holiday season) on Tuesday, January 24th. Apple also released its proxy statement for 2012 to investors this afternoon, in which it is revealed that CEO Time Cook received a total of $376,180,000 in compensation for 2011.
After weeks of wild price swings, Apple’s stock closed today at its highest value ever, $420 a share. The previous high was about $413; many were expecting that value to fall tremendously when (my hero) Steve Jobs passed, but to much surprise Apple’s stock remained relatively unaffected by his passing.
The new high comes right before Apple’s Q4 FY11 earnings report and conference call next week (Tuesday, Oct. 18th). This will of course be their first earnings call since Steve Jobs’ passing, and though I think the report will be their usual “we made ALL the money we win” type, whatever success they have had will surely be sobered by the loss of their visionary CEO and friend Steve Jobs.
![The Dramatic Rise Of Apple’s Profits, Revenes And Cash [Chart]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cashonhandsmallchart.jpg "cashonhandsmallchart")
Good news for Apple shareholders: stock reached an all-time high during mid-day trading today, peaking at $427.75 per share. The last record was set in October of 2011 at $426.70 per share. Despite some slightly tumultuous times on Wall Street after Apple failed to meet analyst expectations with its 
