In Debate, Einhorn Stands Firm On Apple Preferred Stance

David Einhorn continues to defend his position on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which he believes should issue preferred stock to help unlock some of the value in the company to its shareholders. Today Business Insider’s Henry Blodget published his back-and-forth emails with Einhorn as they discussed his view on preferred stock.

Blodget contended that the issuance of preferred stock would cause the value of Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) common stock to fall, thus failing to create shareholder value. However Einhorn says he believes Apple simply has too much cash and can create shareholder value by returning some of that cash in the form of preferred stock.

According to Einhorn, his solution enables Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) “to keep its war-chest” while shareholders see their value unlocked. He doesn’t believe that a one-time dividend or a large stock buyback would do either of those two things.

He also doesn’t think the market would value preferred dividends higher than common dividends “because preferred shareholders will only need to focus on the non-volatile income stream.” He also pointed out that holders of the company’s common stock have to look at many other factors in addition to the dividend, so the value of the common stock wouldn’t be lower than the value of the preferred stock.

As Einhorn argues with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and other analysts about whether Apple should issue preferred stock, an interesting report from data compiled by Statista indicates that Apple is indeed undervalued. Shares of Apple have been falling steadily since their record high in September, with the stock’s most recent hit being its latest earnings report.

However that earnings report was actually the best one out of all the companies that have reported so far. Statista published a chart showing the most profitable companies in America in the December quarter. Investors were disappointed that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) didn’t beat expectations. However Apple actually walloped the competition.

It reported $13.1 billion in net income. The next closest company was Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), which reported $10 billion in net income. Apple also reported a new revenue record and had one of the highest quarterly profits ever recorded by any company in history.

This just goes to show how the markets are really driven. It isn’t about real numbers or about anything else that’s particularly concrete. It’s all about how those numbers are delivered and the conclusions investors draw on their own.

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