BOOX Research expects Apple to announce a dividend increase with its fiscal Q2 earnings release on April 30th.
Despite the difficult operating environment this year given the COVID-19 pandemic disruption, BOOX sees Apple’s dividend supported by the company’s balance sheet strength.
BOOX Research for Seeking Alpha:
Apple is currently on a 7-year streak of consecutive annual increases to its dividend. The company typically declares the rate hike each year in conjunction with the fiscal Q2 earnings release for the quarter ending March 31st. The upcoming earnings release is scheduled for Thursday, April 30th, after the market close. Apple has a consistent pattern of setting the dividend record date on the second Monday of May annually since 2013, with a payment occurring the Thursday of the same week. Curiously, this is an unusually quick turnaround for the payment compared to most other companies.
The actual per share amount rate hikes have been relatively random on a year-to-year basis considering a 5-cent increase in 2015 and 2016, a 6-cent increase in 2017, a 10-cent increase in 2018, and a modest $0.04 per share dividend hike last year.
From a split-adjusted dividend amount of $0.3786 first declared in April of 2012 ($2.65 per share at the time), the quarterly rate has increased to the current $0.77 per share amount representing a composite annual increase of 11% per year over the period.
We forecast Apple will increase its dividend by 6.5%, or $0.05 per share, to a new quarterly rate of $0.82.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s earnings report will be released right after market close at 1:30pm PDT / 4:30pm EDT on Thursday, April 30, 2020. We’ll have thise results for you as soon as they are released. The company’s conference call to discuss second fiscal quarter results is scheduled a half hour later at 2pm PDT / 5pm EDT and we’ll cover that with live notes as usual.