“Apple shares edged higher Monday as speculation grew that the company would once again return some of its multibillion-dollar war chest to investors in the form of dividends and share buybacks, just as it had done one year earlier,” Patrick May writes for SiliconBeat. “At that time, Apple announced it would bump up its cash-out to $100 billion by the end of 2015, and it had accomplished more than half of that goal by February.”
“Here’s the thinking: As Cook successfully fended off [Carl] Icahn’s demands [for increased AAPL buybacks], he also suggested to investors that Apple would unveil new products this year after a long drought in that department,” May writes. “Yet with few observers actually expecting Apple to come up with a new TV or wearable ‘iWatch’ before June’s annual worldwide developer conference, it would make sense for Apple to dip into its cash hoard once again, just to keep everybody happy until a new killer product does come out.”
Read more in the full article here.