Apple's Busy Week: Tech Weekly

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Apple(AAPL) . Apple. Apple. Another week has gone by, and Apple once again packed the news agenda.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company made a variety of headlines this week, ranging from CEO Tim Cook keynoting an investment bank conference to the release of a new operating system, and the tech giant passing $500 per share for the first time.

CEO Tim Cook sat down with Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope earlier this week at a technology conference in San Francisco, and discussed a wide array of topics, ranging from supply chain issues to the company's cash hoard. He also seemed to hint at new products.

Cook said Apple is taking very seriously concerns that have been raised about labor practices in its supply chain.

"The first thing that I want everyone to know - Apple takes working conditions very, very seriously," explained the Apple chief. "We care about every worker."

Cook also touched on the company's cash hoard, approaching $100 billion as of the end of the fiscal first quarter. He seemed to hint that something is in the works, saying Apple has "more cash than we need to run the business on a daily basis." The CEO, however, stopped short of announcing a dividend or buyback, asking that shareholders be patient on this issue.

Cook also talked about the Apple TV set-top box amidst mounting speculation that the company will announce a television set later this year.

"For those of us that use it, we have always thought that there's something there and if we keep following our intuition and pull that string, it could be larger," he said, referring to the existing Apple TV. "We need something that could go more main market."

Apple announced its new operating system, dubbed Mountain Lion, this week. The software will have a variety of new features incorporating parts of the company's mobile operating system, iOS, into the OS for Mac computers.

Apple dropped the name Mac from its operating system, potentially paving the way for OS X Mountain Lion and iOS to become one in the same. Mountain Lion will get features such as Message, Contacts, Notes, Game Center, and offer integration with Twitter and Apple's iCloud service.

Apple shares crossed a milestone this week, moving past the $500 mark for the first time as investor optimism continues to increase. The iPhone maker was also named the top American brand in a reputation study.

Apple shares closed the week up 1.7%, gaining $8.70 to close at $502.12.

Hedge funds and institutional investors released their holdings this week, and a slew of them added or subtracted stakes in some of the more notable tech stocks.

David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital made some heavy bets on tech stocks during the fourth quarter, initiating positions in Yahoo!(YHOO) , Research In Motion(RIMM) , and Dell(Dell) . Einhorn also raised his stake in Apple and chip-maker Marvell Technology(MRVL) .

Netflix(NFLX) was one tech stock that saw heavy institutional buying and selling during the fourth quarter.

Hedge funds like Renaissance Technologies, SAC Capital, and JAT Captial Management reduced their positions, while Jana Partners and Adage Capital Partners added shares.

Netflix shares lost 1.7%, or $2.08, during the week to close at $121.85.

Yahoo! saw heavy buying action during the fourth quarter, while the Internet company attempted to turn itself round and come up with a plan for its Asian assets.

Shares of Yahoo! dropped sharply during the week, as investors did not react favorably to an article that the company has reportedly scrapped the sale of its Asian assets. Yahoo! fell 34 cents, or 2.25%, to close the week at $15.01.

Some of Wall Street's bigger players also added to their stakes in Google(GOOG) during the fourth quarter.

Google shares ended the week down 0.2% to $604.64.

Earnings from companies like Rackspace(RAX) , Nvidia(NVDA) , and Zynga(ZNGA) were in the spotlight this week.

Cloud-computing company Rackspace reported revenue of $283 million, a rise of 32% year-over-year, and earnings of 18 cents per share. Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report $281.02 million in revenue, and 15 cents per share.

Shares of Rackspace gained 9.1% or $4.42 to close the week at $52.93.

Nvidia reported better- than-expected earnings but the company issued weak first quarter-guidance, as GPU sales are still constrained.

Nvidia earned 26 cents per share on revenue of $953 million during the fourth quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been expecting earnings of 19 cents per share and sales of $950.5 million. For the first quarter, Nvidia expects revenue between $900 million and $930 million, well below the $945 million analysts had been anticipating.

Nvidia shares lost 0.3% of their value for the week, closing down 4 cents to $15.85.

Zynga, the social network gaming company, reported better than expected earnings, but shares fell sharply after the company said it expects to see slower growth in the first half of 2012.

The maker of FarmVille reported earnings of 5 cents per share on $307 million in revenue, a 26% increase year-over-year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting earnings of 3 cents per share on revenue of $302 million for the period. The company said its monthly active users increased to 23% to 240 million during the quarter.

Zynga expects revenue for full-year 2012 in the range of $1.35 billion to $1.45 billion.

Zynga shares fell 3%, or 40 cents, during the week to close at $12.93.

Earnings season rumbles on next week with HP(HPQ) , Dell(DELL) and Sourcefire(FIRE) on deck to report quarterly results. Apple also holds its annual shareholders meeting on Thursday.

Interested in more on Zynga? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.

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--Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York

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