Apple to host conference call Monday to discuss its $100B cash balance
Apple will host a conference call on Monday at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 a.m. Pacific to discuss what it plans to do with its $100 billion cash balance.
The company issued a press release at 6 p.m. Eastern on Sunday evening to announce the conference call less than 24 hours in advance. The call will feature Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer.
On the call, the company "will announce the outcome of (its) discussions concerning its cash balance." The press release also said that Apple would not provide an update on its current quarter, nor would it discuss any topics other than cash.
Last quarter, Apple's cash hoard grew to nearly $100 billion, prompting a great deal of discussion among investors and analysts. Executives at Apple simply said that they were "actively discussing" what to do with the money.
Last month, at Apple's annual shareholder meeting, investors again questioned Cook about what Apple planned to do with its cash hoard, with some of them pushing for a cash dividend. But Cook wouldn't commit to any such plans and instead repeated his comments that Apple executives were thinking "very deeply" about what to do with its money.
The growth trajectory of Apple's cash hoard, via Asymco.
With its cash, Apple has continued to make strategic investments to bolster its supply chain and also enhance its current product offerings, as it did with the $50 million purchase of App Store search engine Chomp revealed last month.
AppleInsider will have full live coverage of Apple's conference call when it takes place on Monday morning.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
I hope it's education pricing for iPads and automatic AppleCare
edit: I withdraw my buyback comment for a time when the stock market is suffering.
I'd like a stock buy back and for Apple to announce plans to split the stock. I'm expecting a dividend and an announcement of how successful this weekend's iPads were.
apparently they're not going to discuss the quarter so my guess is we won't get any iPad numbers.
It could end up being a whale of day. I'm going to refrain from trying to predict anything, though. Every time I do that, I'm wrong.
They do this on a Monday morning before the market opens... after a weekend where I moved most of my short term options to cash in case Greece blew up or something.
:-/
It's obviously either buyback... or more likely a dividend.
Whatever Oppenheimer... whatever...
I hope it's not a dividend.
I hope it's education pricing for iPads and automatic AppleCare
Education pricing would be great, the biggest reason I'll be getting one is to benefit my son's education.
I also think they will announce plans to invest a portion of their stockpile in an "incubator" for research and development (i.e. making private equity-type investments in startups). That would be productive use of the money, and potentially give Apple some leverage in the coming years in terms of intellectual property.
Apple has a big enough stockpile of cash and investments that today, it really looks like an investment manager and technology company rolled into one.
apparently they're not going to discuss the quarter so my guess is we won't get any iPad numbers.
Not on the 9AM (Eastern) call, but I would not be surprised if later on in the day or Tuesday they issue a separate press release announcing weekend sales. Whatever they decided to do with cash will have a significant impact on their stock trading activity tomorrow, and so might speculation about iPad sales. I'm guessing the board met this weekend to approve whatever Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer will announce, though I find it a bid odd they decided to do it the same weekend the new iPad launched.
I'd like a stock buy back and for Apple to announce plans to split the stock. I'm expecting a dividend and an announcement of how successful this weekend's iPads were.
Realistically the only two options are buy back or dividend at this point, right? They wouldn't hold a press conference if they were just going to let the cash pile keep growing.
Good thing I bought a few more shares in my Roth IRA and my sons college fund on Friday.
Perhaps, a one-time bonus for all workers including those at Foxconn? It will be interesting to see how they approach this.
Education pricing would be great, the biggest reason I'll be getting one is to benefit my son's education.
This is a business, forget this education nonsense.
Realistically the only two options are buy back or dividend at this point, right? They wouldn't hold a press conference if they were just going to let the cash pile keep growing.
Good thing I bought a few more shares in my Roth IRA and my sons college fund on Friday.
I own shares in my Roth as well, but what they do with the cash will not change Apple's value near term although trading may be volatile on Monday. My intention is to keep the shares until something fundamental changes.
Realistically the only two options are buy back or dividend at this point, right? They wouldn't hold a press conference if they were just going to let the cash pile keep growing.
Good thing I bought a few more shares in my Roth IRA and my sons college fund on Friday.
Those are the only two realistic ways of reducing the cash/investment balance (only a quarter of it is actually cash and 2/3 of it is in long-term investments). For 2012, at least as far as American shareholders are concerned, a special dividend would be taxed at 15% (the same as a long term capital gain), so that is one way of doing it. A stock buyback doesn't make a whole lot of sense when the stock is trading at a record high, so I'm leaning toward a special dividend.
However, they might announce plans to change how they invest whatever amount they decide to keep (hence my speculation that they might announce the creation of a private equity-type fund).
I own shares in my Roth as well, but what they do with the cash will not change Apple's value near term although trading may be volatile on Monday. My intention is to keep the shares until something fundamental changes.
Same here. A Roth has been the best place for it given how much it has increased over the past few months. That said, announcing a small regular dividend would make it an eligible investment for some pension plans and mutual funds whose charters don't allow them to invest in stocks that don't pay dividends. So if they announce a $20/share special dividend (which would reduce cash by about $19 billion), that might not preclude them from announcing a nominal regular dividend, such as $1/share to keep cash at manageable levels. It would be a yield of less than 0.2% so it won't exactly become a utility.
I'd like a stock buy back and for Apple to announce plans to split the stock. I'm expecting a dividend and an announcement of how successful this weekend's iPads were.
If you wanted that you should have bought Microsoft during it's rise. They've overly split the stock to a point now that it will never go up for squat.
My guess: A one-time dividend. Something like $20 per share.
Of course that would be awesome. We'll see. But it would be a timely distribution in 2012 given that dividends will be taxed more heavily starting in 2013.