Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) got a mid-day pop on Wednesday due to nothing more than comments from activist investor and billionaire Carl Icahn. The long and short of the matter is that Icahn has said in the recent past that he would remain in the mix but would be less vocal.

What stands out the most is that Icahn’s position is now said to top $3 billion. Amazingly, with a $500 billion market cap, that does not even make Icahn a top 10 shareholder.

Icahn tweeted on Wednesday that Apple is effectively a “no brainer.” He said that he accumulated another $500 million worth of Apple shares in the past two weeks, and that position has crossed above $3 billion as of Tuesday.

Where Icahn is being vocal is that he said Apple is doing a disservice by not handily increasing its stock buyback plan. Icahn also indicated that an open letter would soon follow.

Apple shares were up 1.35% at $556.50 Wednesday morning, but trading volume of 5.4 million shares just after 11:00 a.ma EST is not much to brag about, considering that an average day’s volume is about 11.5 million shares.

Apple has traded in a range of $385.10 to $575.14 in the past year, and the consensus price target is roughly $597.50.

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