Wall Street investors and analysts didn’t seem to be taken by surprise with Tuesday’s announcement that Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer will be leaving the company later this year, transitioning the post to Luca Maestri in the next few months.
Shares of Apple were up less than 1 percent in morning trading on Tuesday, as Wall Street was generally unfazed by the news that Oppenheimer will retire at the end of September. Oppenheimer has served as Apple’s CFO for 10 years, and his entire tenure at the company has lasted more than 18.
Analyst Brian White of Cantor Fitzgerald issued a note to investors that Oppenheimer had oversaw a period of rapid growth and large shareholder returns while at Apple, and the firm’s hiring of Maestri in early 2013 indicated that a transition was in the making.
Apple’s annual revenue grew from $8 billion to a massive $171 billion under Oppenheimer.
In his note to investors, analyst Mark Moskowitz with J.P. Morgan said Oppenheimer leaves Apple with a “strong financial management structure,” and doesn’t expect to see much change under Maestri, saying: “Maestri has been well regarded by the investment community, in our view, and we think he has the skill sets to successfully lead the finance operations at Apple.”
