How am I doin’? On the first anniversary of taking over as CEO of Apple, The Post grades CEO Tim Cook’s performance. (EPA)
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When grading Apple CEO Tim Cook, it’s hard to argue with the numbers.
Yesterday marked Cook’s first year atop the company, and despite doubts that he could step into Steve Jobs’ shoes, he’s earned an A from shareholders.
Apple not only hit an all-time high this week, it became the most valuable company in history after surpassing the $619 billion market cap record set by Microsoft in 1999. Apple shares closed yesterday at $663.23, valuing it at $622 billion.
“Next stop $1 trillion,” said Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets, who has a price target of $1,111 a share and gives Cook high marks.
Cook endeared himself to shareholders by implementing Apple’s first dividend — a move that Jobs thought was a sign of weakness — and buying back shares. There’s also growing hope for a stock split.
Cook missed Wall Street’s lofty expectations a couple of times in the past year, something Jobs never did in his tenure. Otherwise, he would have rated A-plus.
Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 5 and an iPad mini next month. With so much coming up, Peter Misek of Jeffries praised Cook’s leadership.
“A is the grade,” Misek said. “It has been a year of executing in front of the largest product cycle in their history.”
Cook gets bonus points as well for trying to improve factory conditions for workers at Apple’s suppliers in China, a major concern that Jobs never addressed.
Still, Cook’s critics point out that he’s riding high on products that were rolled out on his predecessor’s watch.
Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research, said Cook deserves a failing grade because since he took over, the company has had no revolutionary new products.
“Cook has different priorities than Jobs, who was only focused on users, users, users,” said Chowdhry. “Jobs was very smart, and he defined the product road map for the next three years.”