“Apple has nearly $100 billion in cash just sitting on its balance sheet, earning nothing more than a market rate of return,” Chris Ciaccia reports for CNBC. “As the cash hoard grows ever larger, shareholders have grown increasingly more vocal about getting hold of it.”
Ciaccia writes, “This poses the question: Do Apple shareholders have a legal right to the cash, and could they sue Apple to get it?”
“Even though there’s growing pressure for Apple to start paying a dividend again, the board does not have an obligation to pay, despite investors’ cries for something to be done,” Ciaccia reports. “Corporations are not charities, say lawyers, and are designed to earn a profit, which they can’t do effectively if shareholders are demanding financial capital back.”
Much more in the full article here.
I don’t hear *shareholders* getting vocal about Apple paying a dividend. No, it is the analysts and media who are pushing the idea, and probably stockbrokers, as well, hoping to get their hands on some commissions from tens of billions of dollars.
Apple has been very frugal and effective with their use of cash and securities – no big multibillion dollar Skype or Motorola Mobility acquisitions – just carefully targeted strategic purchases as part of a well-crafted long term plan.
If you want cash out of your AAPL stock, then sell some and pay taxes at the capital gains rate of 15%. If you can’t stand incredible share price appreciate and just have to have a dividend, then buy another stock. Besides, Apple is getting more return on that money that I could possibly get from “safe” investments. The best return that I am getting is on AAPL, itself.
Considering that Apple is one of the few companies in the world that does nearly everything RIGHT, and has become #1 in the USA as a result, I seriously doubt there is going to be any coup by the shareholders.
We know full well that the only reason AAPL wasn’t already at $400 a share a YEAR ago is because of stock manipulation. It had nothing to do with Apple storing cash assets. Don’t blame Apple for the nefarious perpetrations of outsiders.
Q: Do Apple shareholders have a legal right to the cash, and could they sue Apple to get it?”
A: No.
However, the stockholders can vote to dump the board until they get one that acquiesces to their demand. That would be nothing new.
Most of Apple’s cash is overseas. I believe about 2/3 of it. Bringing it back to give a dividend would get the value taxed out of it. Shareholders would get a tiny dividend and Apple would get a high tax burden.
Chris Ciaccia didn’t do any research, but then this is what passes for reporting these days.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: shut up you greedy stupid fucks. Most of the calls for a dividend are coming from people who aren’t even shareholders. And even so, being a shareholder doesn’t entitle you to a steady stream of extra cash other than the growth of the stock. As I’ve said before, that 100 billion in the bank is not shareholders money bits money from customers who bought what Apple is selling.
No, shareholders can’t sue for dividends. But I am pretty sure the public at large can sue Chris Ciaccia for being a moron.
If some shareholders need cash, then they can sell part of their portofolios.
Apple’s cash pile is really not that huge. It’s about 20% of the market cap. When Steve returned, I believe the market cap was around 3 billion while cash was around 1.2 billion. That’s 40%