Prominent activist investor Carl Icahn believes that Apple is now worth more than $1 trillion. People from Wall Street think otherwise, saying that Apple needs a few more years to reach the said stock valuation.
Icahn, one of the 10 largest shareholders of Apple, added that Apple's current stock value reaches $216 per share. He expects that there will be a huge increase in the company's stock buyback program.
In a tweet to his followers, Icahn expressed that investors have undervalued Apple. He hopes that the board would decide to increase its share buybacks.
If Icahn's trading valuation of $216 a piece is true, it would mean that Apple's market capitalization would reach around $1.26 trillion.
In the past 12 months, shares of Apple have increased for more than 65 percent. This is definitely something to reckon with considering that S&P 500's overall shares increased by a mere 15 percent within the same time frame.
"It wouldn't be outlandish for them to be at a $1 trillion market cap now," said portfolio manager Mark Mulholland. His very own Matthew 25 fund is one of the top performing large-cap funds in the last five years.
Icahn has also proposed an earnings per share growth rate of 20 percent a year, which could even reach up to 31 percent if Apple were to introduce a rumored TV. He tried to push Apple CEO Tim Cook to take advantage of what he describes as a market undervaluation of the company and buy back the shares of its stock.
Back in August 2013, Icahn also pushed Cook to increase the company's stock buyback program since Apple stock was trading at about $66. The same push was given in October 2014 when the iPhone maker's stock hit $100.
"The iPhone still has legs, but they have to keep innovating," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in New York. "There have to be new product categories."
Ghriskey also believes that even if Apple came up with a number of new gadgets, its earnings and share price would most likely increase faster than the other companies in the S&P 500 in the next four years.
While the Apple Watch and Apple Pay mobile payment system have the potential to propel stock gains, Ghriskey and the other investors believe that it will take time before they become serious profit makers for Apple.
"Apple Pay seems to be an area that could touch enough consumers to move the needle but that's going to be a slow process," said Patrick Becker Jr at Becker Capital Management.
