Star investor sparks Apple rise

It’s commonly said that in life, it’s not usually what you know, but who you know. Similarly, in investing, it is often who invests in you that can make all the difference. Such is certainly the case with the recent news that Carl Icahn has showed his faith in Apple (AAPL) by investing in the company, which has seemingly led to shares rising all the way past the $504 mark at one point.

The gains from recent days have led Apple’s value to go up to over $450 billion, which has been a welcome development to worried fans and investors alike, who have watched as the brand’s stock has gone up and down throughout the last year. Even with this surge, Apple is looking way, way up at its all-time high of over $700 per share that was achieved last September.

Anyway, Icahn has long had a reputation of being a person who likes to invest heavily in companies in an effort to influence changes in how they are run. He sent a pair of tweets on Tuesday that indicated his faith in the company as well as his choice to invest in Apple, saying that Apple is “extremely undervalued”.

Icahn has some ideas, including an Apple buyback, which he says should be a $150 billion plan. He wants Apple to increase their dividends as well, though time will tell if Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, will respond positively to these suggestions. So far, it has been confirmed that Cook and Icahn have been in conversation with one another.

Right now, Apple’s reaction is all speculation, as the company would only say that the two men “had a very positive conversation”, but with Icahn taking a rumored $1.5 billion interest in the stock, this will be a very interesting story to follow. In the meantime, Apple backers are certainly enjoying the recent climb.