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back to article Apple announces dividends, share buy-back

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 " …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Had to happen

    Once St Jobs had proved that you can't take it with you...

    4 1
  2. dave 93
    FAIL

    meh

    Like Apple shareholders really need an extra $10 a year profit on every share. It would have been much more interesting if they had funded a Steve Jobs foundation with a mission to make the world better somehow. Think Bill Gates...

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: meh

      But that was Bill Gates' own money, not Microsoft's.

      I suspect Microsoft's (and Apple's) many shareholders would not be pleased if their companies decided to send >30% of their cash to a foundation.

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      1. aBloke FromEarth
        Reply Icon
        Trollface

        Re: meh

        I wonder how the shareholders would feel if they spent 20% of it to give everybody in the world clean water and basic sanitation?

        0 1
        1. oregonensis
          Reply Icon

          Re: meh

          Even at Foxconn?

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "a Steve Jobs foundation with a mission to make the world"

    You mean Apple

    1 1
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    $10 a year from a $500 stock, that seems to be a 2% yield.

    Is that really that good?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      2.6% isn't bad at all. It's better than a savings account or an ISA

      1 0
      1. Ed
        Reply Icon

        Not really - the best cash ISAs currently available (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa) are 3.5% - tax free. 2.6% after tax would be significantly less.

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      2. Annihilator
        Reply Icon
        Boffin

        Better than savings or ISA?

        Not sure where you're getting your ISA rates from, but 3% is a good rule of thumb, higher if you shop around. The 2.6% return on shares would be subject to tax, too.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Better than savings or ISA?

          Cash ISAs are limited to £5340...

          You can get tax-free dividends if you put the stocks into a Stocks & Shares ISA with the same limit.

          You can combine both types and get double the tax-free allowance.

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    2. Eddy Ito
      Reply Icon

      I expect the yield will go down as the stock buy back will up the price of the stock which would lower the yield.

      I'm beginning to think they are just trying to see how high they can drive the stock price. If that's the case they have a long way to go to reach BRK.A

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ooh...

    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.

    3 8
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ooh...

      Steve Jobs knew how to run a business, he saved apple from the brink and it became hugely profitable.

      You might like this way better than when Steve Jobs was in charge, but to imply he couldn't run a business is simply wrong. No matter what side of the fence you're on

      7 3
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      Re: Ooh...

      Hahah right, because Steve Jobs clearly showed he didn't know how to run a business, taking stock from $6 to almost $600 in the years he was back in charge of Apple.

      You sir win the most clueless award - or maybe just biggest troll.

      11 1
    3. Michael Thibault
      Reply Icon

      Re: Ooh...

      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'.

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  6. qwarty

    $10.60

    Why is $10.60 p.a. dividend a high payout on a $600 share?

    1 0
    1. Oninoshiko
      Reply Icon

      Re: $10.60

      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).

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  7. FunkyEric
    Trollface

    no-one buys apple shares for dividends

    Since they've never had them. They just buy them in the hope that the eternal upward spiral continues. A little dividend is just a bonus to them. So how long before Apple returns to $6 a share as it surely will one day. Nothing lasts for ever......

    0 1
  8. An0n C0w4rd

    I'd have been more interested in a shareholder discount, similar to what BA did before it borged with Iberia to become IAG, and M&S do (for example)

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Issuing a dividend and doing a buyback

    Doing this now avoids a class action suit from shareholders. That could explain the 'token' amounts

    0 1
  10. SiempreTuna
    Trollface

    If you had a shed load of shares ..

    .. 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 ..

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If you had a shed load of shares ..

      You're confused.

      MSFT announced a dividend in 2003, that's AFTER the massive stock drop from it's near $60 peak in 2000 to around $30, approximately where it still remains.

      APPL is completely different.

      1 0
  11. Bodhi

    "Our first and foremost objective, as it will always be, will be to make the most innovative products in the world. And so we decided how much cash that we needed to do that."

    Great! When do they plan on starting?

    3 3
  12. stevedan

    Insanely Doomed: Why Apple Will Crash Without Steve Jobs

    Take a look at this book on Kindle by Paul Turner.....

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