In a conference call for Wall Street and tech reporters this morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the company would pay out some $45 billion to investors over the next three years by issuing a $2.65 per share stock dividend and buying back $10 billion in stock. With the dividend plan, the company hopes to attract a new set of investors looking to hop on board with Cupertino Gravy Train.
Mere rumors of the dividend plan made headlines on the Wall Street Journal's website last night as the East Coast prepared for the pre-trading conference call. With a market cap valued at over $550 billion, Apple is still the world's most valuable company and is currently sitting on a $98 billion mountain of cash according to their balance sheet from December. In a statement today, Cook described the company's enviable cash situation:
"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 our infrastructure. Even with (the dividend and stock buybacks) we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business."
On the back of this morning's news, Apple's share price has gotten a roughly 2% bump and has been threatening to break $600.
