Tag: apple

One transaction was for 66,390 shares, sold for $174.66 each, while the other was 30,345 shares fetching $175.60 apiece…reports Asian Lite News

Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri has sold shares worth $16.9 million as part of an arranged trading plan.

According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the transactions was executed in two tranches.

One transaction was for 66,390 shares, sold for $174.66 each, while the other was 30,345 shares fetching $175.60 apiece.

MacRumors reports that a total of 96,735 shares were sold by Maestri.

“The transactions were made pursuant to a predetermined trading plan adopted by Maestri in November 2020, in accordance with insider trading laws”, the report mentioned.

Maestri still holds around 110,000 shares of Apple stock following the sale, according to the US SEC filing.

Maestri joined Apple in 2013 and reports directly to CEO Tim Cook.

Apple’s stock closed at $171.52 on Friday and is up nearly 32 per cent since June.

Despite the global macro-economic environment, Apple saw a record June quarter with 2 per cent (year-over-year) revenue increase at $83 billion, riding on a 12 per cent sales increase in services.

iPhone revenue was up from $39.5 billion to $40.7 billion in the April-June period — a 3 per cent increase from the same time last year.

“Our June quarter results continued to demonstrate our ability to manage our business effectively despite the challenging operating environment,” said Maestri.

“We set a June quarter revenue record and our installed base of active devices reached an all-time high in every geographic segment and product category,” he had said.

During the quarter, Apple generated nearly $23 billion in operating cash flow, and returned over $28 billion to its shareholders.

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The company is likely not to backfill some positions too, the report noted late on Monday….reports Asian Lite News

After Microsoft, Meta and Google, Apple has reportedly become the next Big Tech company to slow down hiring for 2023 owing to tough global macroeconomic conditions.

The hiring changes at Apple will not affect all the teams but some verticals will see decreased hiring activities next year, according to Bloomberg.

The company is likely not to backfill some positions too, the report noted late on Monday.

Apple is likely to release its much-anticipated augmented reality (AR)-mixed reality (MR) headset in January next year, as the buzz around metaverse gains steam.

Last week, Satya Nadella-run Microsoft became the first tech giant to lay off employees as part of a ‘realignment’.

The layoffs at Microsoft reportedly affect nearly 1 per cent of its 1,80,000-strong workforce across its offices and product divisions.

Microsoft has also slowed hiring in the Windows, Teams and Office groups.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has informed staff about a hiring slowdown this year while Meta (formerly Facebook) has warned employees of “serious times” and has issued a hiring freeze for certain roles.

Twitter has also cut 30 per cent of its recruiting team while Elon Musk-run Tesla has been laying off hundreds of employees.

Other tech companies that have slowed hiring include Nvidia, Snap, Uber, Spotify, Intel and Salesforce, among others.

Cloud major Oracle recently considered laying off thousands of workers to save up to $1 billion in cost-cutting measures, the media reported.

Meanwhile, tech giant Meta is likely looking forward to bidding goodbye to a few employees as a media report says that the platform has asked managers to identify people for layoffs.

According to The Information, Meta Platforms’ Vice President of Remote Presence and Engineering Maher Saba has instructed managers to identify and “move to exit” poor performers as the company struggles with macroeconomic pressures and hits to its advertising business.

In a post to Meta’s internal messaging system, Saba, who has been with Meta for eight years, told managers to think about the value their team members bring to Meta.

“If a direct report is coasting or a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company,” Saba was quoted as saying.

“As a manager, you cannot allow someone to be net neutral or negative for Meta,” Saba added.

Managers should identify people on their team who “need support” by 5 p.m. on Monday and “move to exit people who are unable to get on track,” the post said.

Representatives for Meta, including Saba, did not respond to requests for comment by the website. Meanwhile, the company recently warned employees to expect a tough second half of the year.

Recently, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox detailed the company’s financial dilemma in an internal memo that detailed key areas where the social media giant plans to invest.

Cox reiterated statements made by Meta CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg during a call with analysts as part of the company’s first-quarter earnings report.

He added that the company is in “serious times here and the headwinds are fierce,” underscoring that its challenges aren’t likely to vanish anytime soon.

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Apple regained its crown as the world’s largest company by market capitalisation with a valuation 6 per cent and 13 per cent ahead of Saudi Aramco and Microsoft, respectively…reports Asian Lite News

The market capitalisation of the top 100 companies globally increased from $10.3 trillion to $31.7 trillion, an increase of 48 per cent, from March 2020 till March 2021, a new report said on Sunday.

Apple topped the list with $2.85 trillion in market cap, followed by Saudi Aramco, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, according to the data provided by London-based accounting company PwC.

Apple regained its crown as the world’s largest company by market capitalisation with a valuation 6 per cent and 13 per cent ahead of Saudi Aramco and Microsoft, respectively.

Reliance Industries (at 58th position) and Tata Consultancy Services (69th spot) were the only two companies from India in the global list.

There were no direct entrants to the ‘Global Top 100’ companies via IPO despite a buoyant IPO market.

“The threshold to enter the list is now $129 billion, potentially creating a barrier to future entrants via IPO,” the report noted.

Samsung Electronics Co was the world’s 22nd-largest company in terms of market capitalisation, down seven notches from a year earlier.

The tech giant was the only South Korean company on the list with a market value of $342 billion, as of March.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. came in 10th, with its market cap reaching $541 billion, up by one notch from a year earlier.

Amazon’s market capitalisation increased by 61 per cent in the year to March 2021, supported by the growing “stay-at-home economy” seen throughout 2020 and into 2021, although Amazon did not move up from fourth position.

Elon Musk-run Tesla’s market capitalisation increased from $96 billion in March 2020 to $641 billion in March 2021, an astonishing 565 per cent increase and a clear outlier in the top 10 risers.

All regions and component countries experienced a relative increase in market capitalisation of the companies listed in the ‘Global Top 100’.

In-line with expectations, the United States continues to dominate the ‘Global Top 100’ list in terms of market capitalisation and number of companies, with 59 companies accounting for 65 per cent of total market capitalisation, the data showed.

Technology continues to be the largest sector in terms of market capitalisation ($10.5 trillion).

Global Top 100 Technology companies saw a 71% increase as compared to their value as at March 2020, in-line with the wider industry index performance.

“As a point of comparison, in the private company domain, half of the Top 100 unicorns valued at $1 billion and above (at 31 March 2021) were from the US, broadly in line with the ‘Global Top 100’ of public companies,” the report noted.

The value of the top 100 unicorns grew by 30 per cent to $1.1 trillion in the year to March 2021, behind the public companies’ market capitalisation increase in the same period (49 per cent).

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