Can Telstra really maintain a 45% valuation premium to Apple

Can Telstra really maintain a 45% valuation premium to Apple? Read all at (VIEW LINK) Apple shares jumped again last night, to $US126.46, or a market capitalisation of $US736 billion, which is a record high for any company ever. What drove the company higher was the fact that Carl Icahn, the activist shareholder, published a letter saying the company was cheap. He demanded an increased buyback by Apple of its dramatically undervalued shares. Is Apple cheap as Icahn says? Well, if the results produced by Telstra on Thursday are anything to go on, quite possibly. On enterprise value multiples (market capitalisation adjusted for cash/earnings before interest and taxation), Apple is at a whopping 31 per cent discount to the Australian telco. Apple's enterprise value multiple is 9.9-times, while Telstra is on 14.3-times. Telstra has net debt of $10 billion. Apple has net cash of $US144 billion. Normally, shareholders pay more for higher growth...