Carl Icahn on Monday morning published an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, arguing that the tech giant’s stock is worth $240 per share.
That would be 83.38% higher than today’s opening trades for Apple (AAPL), and would bump the company’s market cap up to a whopping $1.38 trillion.
Icahn also wants Apple’s board to undertake a push larger share buyback than the $50 billion package that is currently approved (which followed an $80 billion buyback for which Icahn had agitated). From Icahn’s letter:
It is our belief that large institutional investors, Wall Street analysts and the news media alike continue to misunderstand Apple and generally fail to value Apple’s net cash separately from its business, fail to adjust earnings to reflect Apple’s real cash tax rate, fail to recognize the growth prospects of Apple entering new categories, and fail to recognize that Apple will maintain pricing and margins, despite significant evidence to the contrary. Collectively, these failures have caused Apple’s earnings multiple to stay irrationally discounted, in our view.
This is hardly the first time Icahn has told Apple that its shares are severely undervalued. Back in February, he argued that the company’s shares were worth $216 a piece.
As of March 31, Icahn reported holding around 52.76 million shares of Apple stock, which represents 0.92% of all outstanding Apple stock. It currently is valued at around $6.79 billion, but would be worth $12.66 billion at Icahn’s $240 per share target price.
