Apple should disclose at least basic information about the scope of their investments. This is just common sense, and it's especially important at a time when investors are panicked about the future of the stock.
This proposal is only one manifestation of investors' concerns. It doesn't follow that because 3% voted for it, only 3% are concerned about the stock, which has been downgraded for the first time in 10 years.
Investors are not panicked. I argue that a panicked investor will either: I) Sell his stock immediately. or II) Demand any information available. Since (I) is not happening on a large scale (even when it dropped in January volume was a small portion of total shares), it follows that if investors are panicked about the stock, (II) must be occuring. However, (II) is not occuring because only 2.95% of shareholders voted for the proposal. This indicates that even if some portion of investors are panicked, it is at best only 2.95% of them. Thus it would be incorrect to say investors are panicked.
Now you have changed the investors' dispositions from "panicked" to "concerned". Assume that 100% of shareholders are "concerned" about the stock. It still follows that, at best, only 2.95% of shareholders are "concerned" about this particular information.
That article was over a year ago. Apple's stock has appreciated about 25% since.
I don't think you have much of a point here. Apple is priced on a presumption by Mr. Market that it will never have another major product line and associated high-growth revenue stream. The price has little to nothing to do with its sustainability investments, because they have no impact on its ability to create another breakthrough. (In other words, Apple's future success is clearly not due to capital constraints. Knowledge constraints are the limit.)
Apple's stock did not collapse as the article predicted. In fact it partially recovered a lot of that lost value. Even if the stock had collapsed, it would not support your original claims for all the reasons I have already given. So, I have to wonder if you have a point or if you are simply trolling.
>>it's especially important at a time when investors are panicked about the future of the stock.
Correction: some investors are panicked about the future of the stock. This is my favorite cartoon that describes how those investors operate: http://imgur.com/vuDioSI
I do appreciate that cartoon :), but I wouldn't be extremely confident about Apple stock in either direction, positive or negative. This is a period of great risk, uncertainty and — to be fair, opportunity — for the company. [0][1][2]
