Apple to distribute another $2.5 billion to shareholders via Thursday dividend
Apple will pay shareholders its second dividend in 17 years tomorrow, distributing roughly $2.5 billion in $2.65 per share across the company's 935 million outstanding shares.
Flush with billions in cash it simply can't spend fast enough, Apple first announced plans for a dividend program in March, alongside a $10 billion share buyback program. Each quarter, the company stated it will pay its shareholders a $2.65 per share dividend. Shareholders of record will receive dividend payments tomorrow, November 15th.
Apple's chief executive Tim Cook noted that the company has "used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You?ll see more of all of these in the future.
?Even with these investments," he added, "we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program."
Apple is earning new cash faster than it is paying out in dividends however, so its $2.5 billion in quarterly dividend payments has not reduced Apple's cash hoard over the past two quarters.
In the company's June quarter, Apple announced the accumulation of an additional $7 billion in cash, while in its most recent earnings report, it announced having piled up another $4.2 billion, leaving it with $121.4 billion in cash at the end of its fiscal 2012 as reported in October.
Apple will continue paying new quarterly dividends about a month and a half after the end of each subsequent quarter. A dividend equivalent will also be paid to holders of Apple's restricted shares, although Cook declined to collect dividend payments for the 1.125 million shares of restricted stock he has been granted, which would otherwise be worth over $75 million.
The company's current dividend payment rate is quite modest when compared to its current and future cash position. At the same time, Apple's $2.5 billion in quarterly dividend payments makes it one of the highest dividend payers in the U.S.
Flush with billions in cash it simply can't spend fast enough, Apple first announced plans for a dividend program in March, alongside a $10 billion share buyback program. Each quarter, the company stated it will pay its shareholders a $2.65 per share dividend. Shareholders of record will receive dividend payments tomorrow, November 15th.
Apple's chief executive Tim Cook noted that the company has "used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You?ll see more of all of these in the future.
?Even with these investments," he added, "we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program."
Can't spend fast enough to make a dent
Over the next three years, Apple has stated that its buyback and dividend plans will distribute $45 billion from its cash pile, with quarterly dividends handing out $2.5 billion per quarter.Apple is earning new cash faster than it is paying out in dividends however, so its $2.5 billion in quarterly dividend payments has not reduced Apple's cash hoard over the past two quarters.
In the company's June quarter, Apple announced the accumulation of an additional $7 billion in cash, while in its most recent earnings report, it announced having piled up another $4.2 billion, leaving it with $121.4 billion in cash at the end of its fiscal 2012 as reported in October.
Apple will continue paying new quarterly dividends about a month and a half after the end of each subsequent quarter. A dividend equivalent will also be paid to holders of Apple's restricted shares, although Cook declined to collect dividend payments for the 1.125 million shares of restricted stock he has been granted, which would otherwise be worth over $75 million.
The company's current dividend payment rate is quite modest when compared to its current and future cash position. At the same time, Apple's $2.5 billion in quarterly dividend payments makes it one of the highest dividend payers in the U.S.
Comments
I haven't heard much about the stock buybacks. Have those started?
This is crazy. Do not burn money. I'm very disappointed with Tim Cook. They should use the money to innovate the products. Apple even could build a huge factory in the USA with $2.5 billions.
No. You must own the stock one day before the ex-dividend date, which was November 7 iirc.
Hope Apple is buying back shares at these prices! Would love to be surprised in January that the share count has been reduced, and dividend increased.
Sweet. I like getting the dividend, but not too happy with Apple's current share price. I sure hope that wasn't the trade-off.
I'd love to see Apple be a little more aggressive with that reserve cash. Companies like Nokia, Amazon and Google are spending cash to keep investor interest up, but Apple isn't doing much with their cash at all when it comes to acquisitions. Nokia has a fine map app that they're hopefully bringing to iOS. That would have been a good starting spot for Apple's Maps to begin at. It would be nice if Apple could acquire something like that. I'd really like to see Apple start building some fully-automated factories to keep up with product demand. Foxconn is clearly slacking off and Apple can't afford to do that with its number one product iPhone. There's just too much money and market share on the line to fall behind in production.
Yes, it's horrible that Apple has decide to give a fraction of their profits back to shareholders instead of doing any innovating¡
$2.5bn? They could have bought 100 clockfaces for that!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii
$2.5bn? They could have bought 100 clockfaces for that!
Such a waste, no?
I've spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars.
The rest I just squandered.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MiddleGuy
This is crazy. Do not burn money. I'm very disappointed with Tim Cook. They should use the money to innovate the products. Apple even could build a huge factory in the USA with $2.5 billions.
Jesus Christ. Talk about a lack of perspective. You actually think Apple is grabbing money from it's "$$ we need to innovate" R&D pile to pay out it's dividends?? My God. It has $120+ Billion in the bank, more than any other company in existence. Paying dividends is not going to have a shred of an effect on any innovation or R&D it's doing. As for the US factory, no, they couldn't, and if you htink so you're pretty clueless as to what that actually entails. Factory making what? iPads? I guess they'll have to build another 20 factories also, which make the parts that make the iPad/whatever. Or do you want them to ship the screws from the factory that makes them in China to the one in the US? The supply chain is a massive operation, they can't just build an isolated factory in the US.
In summary, noone cares if you're dissapointed by Tim Cook, because you don't have a clue of what you're talking about, nor the most basic understanding of how a company is run and how it funds its operations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slurpy
Jesus Christ. Talk about a lack of perspective. You actually think Apple is grabbing money from it's "$$ we need to innovate" R&D pile to pay out it's dividends?? My God. It has $120+ Billion in the bank, more than any other company in existence. Paying dividends is not going to have a shred of an effect on any innovation or R&D it's doing. As for the US factory, no, they couldn't, and if you htink so you're pretty clueless as to what that actually entails. Factory making what? iPads? I guess they'll have to build another 20 factories also, which make the parts that make the iPad/whatever. Or do you want them to ship the screws from the factory that makes them in China to the one in the US? The supply chain is a massive operation, they can't just build an isolated factory in the US.
In summary, noone cares if you're dissapointed by Tim Cook, because you don't have a clue of what you're talking about, nor the most basic understanding of how a company is run and how it funds its operations.
Jesus. Do you really think $2.65 per a share of $540 will help shareholders? Stock price fluctuates daily more than $6~$20. Dividend is a waste of money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
Yes, it's horrible that Apple has decide to give a fraction of their profits back to shareholders instead of doing any innovating¡
Sorry, I have not seen many innovations in iPhone 5. To me, Apple is barely catching up. Apple should have invested that 2.5 billion into, at least, software innovation. Loving Jelly Bean 4.2 on my Galaxy Nexus.
Translation:
"I don't own an iPhone 5.
However, I'm going to give my opinion on the piece of hardware that I don't own.
It's crap.
Probably."
He's got me convinced.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
Even with the payout they are still accumulating more cash than pretty much every other company in the world.
I haven't heard much about the stock buybacks. Have those started?
Yup.
Do you remember when Tim Cook apologised for the Maps foul up, and the stock price tanked? The Apple buyback started the day after that.
Cool. So APPLE is the one driving down the share price - so they can buy back shares more cheaply. :smokey:
Say, $50B worth.
They certainly aren't necessary but neither are buybacks. At this point both are good at helping stabilize the stock. Buying back $50 billion wouldn't be good. FIrst of all, that would have to be a one time buyback, not something they could do per quarter or year. Secondly, it would be too radical a change that could destabilize their stock. Finally, with Apple reportedly investing billions in many other companies for components buying back nearly half would reduce their coffers to a point I personally wouldn't be comfortable with. A tech company needs a deep cushion and I feel that $100 billion is a decent demarcation point for that.
Oh no! Now someone will create a conspiracy around that and then others will sue Apple for deep-insider trading.