Billionaire Carl Icahn: Apple investment is a 'no-brainer'

Icahn: Apple in 'category almost by itself'
Icahn: Apple in 'category almost by itself'

Invest in Apple? It's a "no brainer" to Carl Icahn.

"Apple is in a category almost by itself," the billionaire told CNN Wednesday, a day after the the tech giant posted the biggest quarterly profit -- for any company in history.

Even if iPhone sales in China taper off, or the Apple Watch (set to go on sale in April) flops, the stock is still selling "way too cheaply for what it is," he said.

Icahn has long argued that Apple's stock is undervalued. It currently trades at $115 a share, but he believes it's worth at least double that. Icahn would not specify a dollar value, but said he thinks its worth more than the $203 he suggested back in October.

With a $6 billion stake in the company, Icahn is one of Apple's biggest investors. He has urged CEO Tim Cook to buyback more stock as a way to return cash to shareholders.

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Apple is sitting on a mind-boggling amount of cash: $178 billion. With that amount of money, Apple (AAPL) could scoop up both Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX).

Some criticized Icahn for pushing for the buyback, which some argue can seem like a short-sighted strategy. But Icahn said Wednesday that a buyback and investing in research and development aren't mutually exclusive with the amount of money Apple is holding.

"There's so much money here it's almost an absurdity" to choose one or the other, Icahn said.

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