Holiday Gift Guide »

Apple to issue a dividend of $2.65 per share, also plans to buy back $10 b worth of stocks

Categories: Apple
By: , IntoMobile
Monday, March 19th, 2012 at 5:50 AM

Last night Apple announced that they would reveal what they were planning to do with the close to $100 billion they have in the bank. Now that it’s the crack of dawn, we have a press release:

“Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012.

Additionally, the Company’s Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company’s fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012.

Does this mean anything for you? Not really. After all is said and done Apple says that they’re still going to have roughly half of what they have in their “war chest” today, which is money that they’ll spend to do things like secure components, open Apple stores, and possibly make acquisitions.

Investors are probably jumping for joy since they’re going to get a nice(r) return on investment, but chances are that if you’re reading this article you aren’t an investor, you’re just a gadget geek looking for the latest updates about the mobile industry.

Why is Apple doing this? That’s a great question. Steve Jobs lived through Apple’s near bankruptcy, which explains why he was so paranoid about keeping a huge amount of dough under the mattress in case god knows what happens. Tim Cook on the other hand has repeatedly said that he’s not like Steve, and that he’s less religious about Apple’s loot. It’s not like Apple needed to compel investors to buy Apple stock … just look at how well the company is currently operating.

Expect to see more analysts than you can shake a stick at offering their opinions about this news item. Also, we may update this piece with more information since there’s a conference call set to kickoff in about 12 minutes.

Update: The call is over and the folks at Apple Insider have a fantastic list of quotes.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • http://www.addvalue.com.au/ executive gifts

    Hello intomobile! $9.9B is chump change to Apple. They have $98B in cash or cash equivalents! It’s just barely over 10% of their cash reserves. They will still have $89B in cash! Many people will get a piece of that money though, indirectly, through mutual funds that may hold those shares in a fund. If you are in a technology sector mutual fund, you will most certainly be getting a dividend.