Apple to announce what it will do with its extra cash
What do you do if your company has too much cash?
The folks at Apple have been grappling with that question for months, but at last it appears the company has arrived at an answer.
On Monday morning at 9 a.m. EST Apple CEO Tim Cook will co-host a conference call with Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer to let stockholders know what the world’s most valuable company has decided to do with its extra money.
The Associated Press reported that Apple has a surplus of $97.6 billion of cash and investments, thanks to the world’s seemingly insatiable demand for its products. This month, Apple’s stock surpassed the $600 mark as investors anticipated the release of the third-generation iPad on Friday.
Apple has several options of what to do with its money including offering a one-time dividend or an annual payout. The company might also consider a share buyback. But the general consensus among analysts is that Apple will announce a dividend.
Investors have been clamoring for Apple to return the cash to shareholders and Cook fueled speculation that the company would do just that when he admitted that Apple had more money than it needed to run the company at a shareholders meeting in February.
“They should pay a dividend,” Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. told Businessweek. “This is something that large shareholders have been asking for.”
Wu added that he expects Apple to announce an annual dividend of 2% to 3% of its share price.
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