David Einhorn, who heads Greenlight, said the proposal would restrict the ability of Apple’s board to unlock shareholder value. Some investors have been pushing Apple to do more with its enormous pile of cash — $137 billion and growing.
The company started paying a dividend last year, but at $2.65 per share, it doesn’t measure up to other companies with similar cash reserves. Apple has also started to repurchase some of its shares, but Greenlight and others say it should be pushing its cash in another direction.
Greenlight, which has 1.3 million Apple shares, said it is dissatisfied with the way the company allocates capital. Einhorn said his firm has been talking with Apple about the creation of new preferred stock to be distributed to Apple shareholders. Apple, he said, rejected the idea in September. Apple said in its proxy statement it does not plan to issue preferred stock in the future.
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