Apple has announced that the company will begin paying dividends and buying back stock using some of the $100 billion in Apple’s coffers. The dividends and stock buybacks will consume funds to the tune of $45 billion over three years, according to reports.
Starting from 1 July this year Apple will be paying out a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share. The stock repurchases have been allocated a budget of $10 billion and will commence from 30 September this year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been quoted as saying, “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. Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.”
Source: CNET