Had to happen
Once St Jobs had proved that you can't take it with you...
Apple has announced that it will begin issuing a per-share dividend of $2.65 per quarter, and will also initiate a share buy-back program. Together, these efforts will reduce Cupertino's cash hoard by about $45bn in the next three years. Speaking of Apple's cash, CEO Tim Cook said in a conference call on Monday morning that " …
It looks like Steve's influence is on the wane already, someone who understands how to run a business is actually in charge. By which I mean someone who understands a business, rather than someone who understands design and marketing.
Next you know they will be actually contributing to charity.
Foolish yoof! Of course the influence of Jobs is on the wane: any time you die, the phone calls do tend to taper off...
Btw (since you seem to have slept through the first decade of the current millenium): Mr. Cook and company parachuted into a silo of money made possible, to a significant extent, by the business acumen and design-focus of one Steve Jobs. Just sayin'.
It's not, I can get 1.50 on 25USD stocks all day. That said, stock value and divedends are not normally tightly coupled.
What this signals is that apple is moveing out of the rapid growth phase that started when Jobs reaquired the helm into a long-term sustaining phase. This is fairly normal when a company has saturated it's core-markets (music players, tablets, and premium smart phones in the case of APPL).
.. like, say, Tim Cook, wouldn't you like a little income from them rather than be forced to sell to get cash? A 1.7% return may not be much, but it's infinitely (literally? I'm crap at sums) better than 0%.
Of course, everyone here will remember that Microsoft started going tits up almost immediately after they started issue divis - almost like the divi was a way to pre-emptively prop up some shares you knew were about to tank ..
Kinda like a company that just had to bribe it's exec team $10 billion to work out their 2 year contracts ..