Apple Has A Lot Of Cash And Citi Has A List Of Targets For It

Apple (AAPL) has a cash problem on its hands: it has too much of it, which prompted Citigroup to come out with a list of potential takeover targets for the consumer electronics and entertainment giant.

Coming off its first quarterly earning’s report in which the Cupertino, California technology company disclosed it had $256 billion in cash, 93 percent of which is overseas, Citigroup analyst Jim Suva said If President Donald Trump’s tax plan goes through Apple can bring it back to the U.S. at a tax rate of 10 percent, much lower than the current 35 percent rate, and have $220 billion in fire power to make buys or return cash to shareholders.

 "Since one of the new administration's top priorities is to allow US companies to repatriate overseas cash at a lower tax rate, Apple may have a more acute need to put this cash to use," Suva wrote in a research note to clients covered by Reuters. The analyst said mergers and acquisitions make the most sense for Apple’s war chest given it will likely take too long to use its cash to pick up the pace of share backs.

Streaming Content On The Shopping List?

With that in mind Suva came up with a list of potential targets with Netflix (NFLX), Walt Disney (DIS) and Hulu rounding out the top three. Buying any of these three could make sense given the world is increasing moving toward accessing their content online and buying one of them gives Apple access to streaming services and particularly in the case of Walt Disney, a wealth of content. Citigroup isn't the first in recent weeks to speculate Disney would be a good target for Apple. In mid-April RBC Capital Markets gave the tie up a little more than a 0 percent chance of happening. It said Apple could afford Disney with repatriated cash given Disney would likely go for $180 billion and combined would create a trillion dollars media giant. According to Citigroup’s Suva by acquiring Disney investors could see a high as 20 percent gain. The uptick would be 7 percent from an acquisition of Tesla (TSLA), which will give it access to self-driving cars and Netflix which gives it immediate access to streaming content service. If Apple went the other route and bought back shares, Suva said Apple investors could see a 20 percent gain.

A Netflix Acquisition May Make The Most Sense

While most of the attention is focused on Apple buying a media company and speculation surrounding a deal with Disney Suva said Netflix actually makes the most sense."Like Apple, Netflix is global, has no non-core assets (like Disney) and is disrupting the global video ecosystem. Apple could help accelerate this disruption," Suva wrote in the report to clients, which was also covered by CNBC. Suva came up with the assessment that Netflix would make the most sense after screening the deal for five characteristics: strategic fit, the size of a deal, global scale, the number of non-strategic assets and the impact the deal will have on Apple’s stock.

The analyst gave a deal with Netflix a 40 percent chance of happening. The Citigroup analyst doesn’t think media companies are the only attractive targets for Apple and its cash hoard. The analyst pointed to game companies Activision (ATVI), Electronic Arts (EA) and Take-Two (TTWO) as potential targets as well. For Apple doing something with its cash is becoming a priority at least for shareholders who want Apple to put all that money to use. Apple did recently raised its capital return program by $50 billion, its stock buyback program by $35 billion and increased its quarterly dividend by 10.5 percent. 

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