A letter from activist investor Carl Icahn to Apple CEO Tim Cook published this morning is responsible for adding $10.2 billion of value to Apple’s stock.
The main point of Icahn’s letter was that Apple’s stock is undervalued: He believes it’s worth $240 per share. Icahn also said Apple is poised to move into two new markets — cars and TVs, which he thinks will be very lucrative for the company.
Apple appears to have dropped its plans for a TV long ago. But it’s a measure of how much people love Apple — and want to believe in its future — that Icahn’s imaginary product roadmap was able to move the market significantly.
Apple’s stock opened the day Monday at $128.69, and it closed up $1.42 at $130.49. The company’s total market cap at close was $740.79 billion.
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Of course the movement of the stock could have been caused by things other than Icahn’s letter, but the upward lunge at around the time Icahn’s letter was published is notable.
Icahn himself was worth about $26.2 billion as of March 2015, according to Forbes.
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