Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty met with Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer this week, and she walked away from that meeting with some insight on Apple's plans for both its cash and iPhone line.

Hedge fund investor David Einhorn took his case to the public on Thursday in hopes of gaining more support for his lawsuit pushing Apple to issue preferred stock without requiring shareholder approval. Part of what he's hoping to gain is a stock that pays US$0.50 a share every quarter forever.

Some SEC documents filed on Thursday suggest that hedge fund selling contributed to the precipitous decline of $AAPL throughout the December quarter. Bryan Chaffin argues that this is a demonstration that ignorance has always reigned supreme when it comes to Apple.

Hedge fund Greenlight Capital loaded up on shares of $AAPL when the stock was plummeting in the 4th quarter of 2012, increasing it stake from 1.1 million shares to 1.3 million shares. In addition, the fund, run by David Einhorn, has some 275,000 call options on the stock.

Apple has told the U.S. District Court in New York that it will fight Greenlight Capital's efforts to block a vote on a shareholder proposal that would require the company to get shareholder approval before issuing preferred stock. Apple filed a response to Greenlight's suit on Wednesday for an expedited hearing that is scheduled for February 19th, ahead of its February 27th annual shareholder meeting.

Apple is facing another shareholder lawsuit. Brian Gralnick of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania has sued Apple over two proxy proposals the company's management has put forth for its 2013 shareholder meeting on February 27th. The suit shares some similarities with a suit from David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital.

Apple CEO Tim Cook's talk at Goldman Sachs on Tuesday morning didn't help his company's stock, which gave back some recent gains throughout the morning session. Mr. Cook talked about innovation, his company's efforts to return more money to its shareholders, and more, but investors were apparently unimpressed.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference Tuesday morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook called the stock-related lawsuit against the company from Greenlight Capitol's David Einhorn a "silly sideshow," and questioned why anyone would want to sue Apple for doing what's good for shareholders.

U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan of the Southern District of New York has agreed to speed up the schedule of a lawsuit between Greenlight Capital and Apple Inc. Apple will now file its response to the suit by the end of day on Wednesday, February 13th, while Greenlight will file its own response by Friday. Oral arguments will be heard on April 19th.

Apple makes US$1 billion a year from Google to be the default Internet search engine on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. That estimate comes from Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt who thinks Google pays a flat annual fee for the privilege instead of sharing revenue with Apple.