Apple shares are up nearly one and a half percent this afternoon due to rumors that Apple may announce a stock split at tomorrow’s shareholder meeting (via 9to5Mac, MacRumors) – something that many investors have been anticipating for a while. Hedge fund manager Douglas Kass tweeted earlier today that he’s hearing whispers about a stock split. Such a move would certainly increase investor confidence, and would hopefully help bring Apple back up from it’s broad decline from nearly $700 per share last September.
As a result of Kass’s comments, the stock reversed from a position of being down around $5 per share, to being up nearly $7 per share at the time of this writing. Not everyone is convinced that Kass’s comments are genuine, however. Philip Elmer-Dewitt of Fortune casts doubts upon the claim, noting that Kass has a lot to gain from the speculation. Kass may well be attempting to pump the stock just ahead of selling off a number of shares.
Kass defends his claim, however, saying that talk of an AAPL split is currently quite common on Wall Street as analysts and investors anticipate what Apple may discuss at the meeting. Stock splits tend to make a stock more appealing to investors that may be on the fence – and more significantly, typically reflect that a company believes their stock will rise significantly in the near future.
Only time will tell – it if happens, it’ll be big news, and we’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything! MacRumors notes that Apple’s previous stock split was a two-for-one devision, and took place in February 2005.
