Not everyone is down on Apple as an investment these days, as a Russian billionaire recently bought $100 million in Apple stock, and has publicly declared his faith in the company in a recent interview.
Alisher Usmanov, the richest man in Russia, views the recent decline in Apple’s share price as a strong investment opportunity, he said in an interview with Bloomberg. Shares of Apple are down nearly 40 percent from their high last September, just before the launch of the iPhone 5.
While cautioning that “nothing is eternal,” Usmanov said Apple is a “very promising investment” over the next three years. Specifically, he likes the company’s recent decision to spend $100 billion through 2015 on a capital return program.
That money will be used to go toward a higher quarterly dividend of $3.05 per common share, and towards a share repurchase program that will amount to $60 billion.
After initially building his fortune through the tech sector in Alibaba.com and Mail.ru, Usmanov, the 35th richest man in the world with a net worth of $19.8 billion, is known for making a return of over 10 times his investment in Facebook.
