Well-known billionaire and activist investor Carl Icahn has been loudly calling for Apple (AAPL 0.34%) to release some of its cash hoard to the benefit of shareholders by instituting very aggressive stock buyback programs. However, Institutional Shareholder Services has come out in support of Apple's position to reject Icahn's massive proposed buyback program, saying instead that while Apple has been a bit "sluggish" with buybacks, they have really ramped up recently. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced last week that the company has bought back $14 billion worth of shares over the past two weeks.
In this video from Monday's edition of Tech Teardown, Motley Fool tech and telecom bureau chief Evan Niu talks with host Erin Kennedy about the ISS's stance on the issue, and Apple's current share buyback plan. Evan looks back to last year when David Einhorn went on a similar crusade to push Apple into enacting a dramatic share repurchase plan, and he also says that while these very aggressive plans might not be appropriate, the company is now on track to buy back $32 billion worth of shares this year, which Evan sees as a better use of its cash than the unnecessary amount of stockpiling it had been doing before this point.
