Apple said it would pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share from
its huge cash balance, estimated to be around $98 billion from sales of
its hugely successful gadgets like the iPad and iPhone.
The dividend payment would start with the company's 2012 fourth
financial quarter, which begins on July 1, Apple said in a statement.
The $10 billion share buyback will begin in its next financial year,
which starts on September 30. Apple said it expected the repurchase
programme to be executed over three years.
"We have 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," Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, said
in the statement.
"Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for
strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business."
Apple, with total available cash and securities at record highs -
some reports have said it has more cash on hand than the US government -
has been under pressure to pay dividends to shareholders with some of
those funds. The company does not currently pay dividends on its common
stock.
In its most recent quarter, Apple reported a record profit of just
over $13 billion while revenue soared to an all-time high of $46.33
billion. Apple said it sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter that
ended on December 31, up 128% from a year ago, and 15.43 million iPads, a
111% increase.
Its new iPad went on sale on Friday with Apple fans lining up from
Sydney to San Francisco to snap up the latest model of the hot-selling
tablet computer, but without the huge queues for some other Apple
devices.
Souce : RTE News 19th March 2012
