“Apple is opening the doors to its bank vault, saying it will distribute $100 billion in cash to its shareholders by the end of 2015,” Peter Svensson reports for The Associated Press. “Apple Inc. on Tuesday said it will expand its share buyback program to $60 billion — the largest buyback authorization in history.”
“It is also raising its dividend by 15 percent from $2.65 to $3.05 per share,” Svensson reports. “The dividend yield will be about 3 percent at current stock prices. The average yield for the top 20 dividend-paying companies in the U.S. is 3.1 percent, according to Standard & Poor’s… ‘The decline in Apple’s stock price over the last couple of quarters has been very frustrating for all of us, but we’ll continue to do what we do best,’ CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with analysts after the release of the results. But he reinforced that the company’s job is not to boost its stock price. ‘The most important objective for Apple will always be creating innovative products,’ he added.”
Svensson reports, “When a company starts doling out its cash to shareholders, it’s usually a sign that its growth is stalling and it’s finding it hard to identify good ways to invest in its own business. But Apple is still growing fast by the standards of large companies, and its cash pile-up is a reflection of the extraordinary success of the iPhone.”
Read more in the full article here.
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