Is Carl Icahn Frustrated With Apple's CEO And CFO?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shareholders have had a rough go of it lately, with the stock is now down 16.4 percent in the past six months. This week, news broke that one of Apple’s largest shareholders, billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, has reduced his stake in the company by 13 percent.

Although Icahn still holds 45.8 million shares of Apple, his latest 13F filings revealed that he sold about 7 million shares in Q4.

"It is our belief that large institutional investors, Wall Street analysts and the news media alike continue to misunderstand Apple's net cash separately from its business, fail to adjust earnings to reflect Apple’s real cash tax rate, fail to recognize the growth prospects of Apple entering new categories, and fail to recognize that Apple will maintain pricing and margins," Icahn said of the stock less than a year ago.

Related Link: Tim Cook: FBI Is Asking Apple For Something Too Dangerous To Create

Is Carl Mad?

Although Icahn has not commented about his reduced stake or whether or not he still believes the stock is worth $240 per share, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry told  Benzinga that Icahn is likely growing impatient with Apple management.

"Carl Icahn is getting frustrated with Apple's CEO [Tim Cook] and CFO [Luca Maestri]... [The] Apple CEO and CFO should be singularly focused on expanding the PE Multiple rather than doing share buybacks and paying dividends, which are not working," Chowdhry explained.

The news hasn't gotten much better for shareholders in recent days, as Stifel recently reported that Apple's two biggest iPhone suppliers experienced January sales declines of 15 percent year-over-year.

Shares traded recently at $97.25, up 0.63 percent on the day.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.