Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has backed off from his campaign urging Apple Inc to increase its stock buybacks, citing the company's recent repurchases as well as an influential proxy adviser's call against his proposal.In a letter to Apple shareholders on Monday, Icahn wrote he was ditching his non-binding proposal to force Apple to add another $50 billion to its stock buyback plan, "especially when the company is already so close to fulfilling our requested repurchase target."Apple shares closed up 1.8 percent higher at $528.99 on Monday.For months Icahn had been asking Apple to boost its stock buyback program, proposing the iPhone maker repurchase another $50 billion. On Sunday, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc recommended shareholders vote against Icahn's nonbinding proposal, saying the motion would "micromanage" how the company uses capital.
Apple Inc. (Apple) designs, manufactures and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players, and a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications. Shares of AAPL traded higher by 1.79% or $9.31/share to $528.99. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $385.10 and as high as $575.14. On average, 12392000 shares of AAPL exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 12319476.
Source
