Apple to Host Conference Call Monday Concerning its Near $100 Billion Cash Balance

Dividends?

Dividends?

here come the dividends...

Take off 15% - 30% retail price on all Macs.

Kyllle said:

Dividends?

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I assume that kind of activity would signal future intent and help that stock price go even further? My simple logic tells me they would have done that as the stock price growth slows - thus not now?

Perhaps they are going to buy something huge..... a law firm maybe

Dividends divedends dividends :d

Why not keep a stockpile of cash for massive investments in R&D, acquisitions, and/or marketing when things aren't going so well? Looking at the stock price, I would think the last thing apple needs is to issue dividends.

Dividends sound like the most logical idea.

My prediction, 90% sure: Apple Inc. will repurchase TONS of their outstanding stock at outlandish prices. This makes SO much more sense than a dividend.

buy google and destroy android just like steve wanted to do

Buy Dell, shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.

I'm guessing they will announce plans for a special dividend sometime in 2012 (maybe $15-25/share). Right now, qualifying dividends are taxed at 15% rather than at normal income rates (i.e. the same as long term capital gains). That special tax treatment is set to expire at the end of the year. It is also possible they will announce a small regular dividend (perhaps $1/share) that would not be very costly, but would open up their stock to investment by pension plans and mutual funds whose charters require them to invest in dividend-paying stocks. A stock buyback is also possible, but a bit silly when the stock is trading at record highs.

I also would not be surprised if they announce plans to invest a portion of their stockpile in an "incubator" for research and development (i.e. making private equity-type investments in startups). That would be productive use of the money, and potentially give Apple some leverage in the coming years in terms of intellectual property. Apple has a big enough stockpile of cash and investments that today, it really looks like an investment manager and technology company rolled into one. I'm not saying they will, but it would not surprise me.

Isn't most of this cash kept overseas and they didn't bring it back to the US for tax reasons???....I wonder how this would impact the dividend payments if this is indeed what they're planning on doing.

InuNacho said:

Take off 15% - 30% retail price on all Macs.

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We could but dream.

17 years is long overdue, it's time to start paying those who hold stock a dividend once again. Even a small token gesture would be an improvement than what happened under Jobs. At the time he had a point, but once the iPod took off he should have returned the company to paying a dividend. It shouldn't have needed a change in CEO for this to even be considered.

ArztMac said:

My prediction, 90% sure: Apple Inc. will repurchase TONS of their outstanding stock at outlandish prices. This makes SO much more sense than a dividend.

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Stock buybacks suck for a bunch of reasons - I'll be unhappy if they did this.

It shows a lack of imagination on how to invest the money, for starters.

Apple will announce the purchase of a major ***** company. The stock on both companies will be halted during the announcement so watch the market Monday.

Dividends and stock buybacks are usually announced at the end of a quarter.

I wish I had these problems, "What do I do with my 100 Billion Dollars?"

-Mike

I honestly don't get why they'd issue dividends now...isn't there enough value being generated from stock growth anyway? I hope they do something more creative with the cash

Lynn Belvedere said:

Why not keep a stockpile of cash for massive investments in R&D, acquisitions, and/or marketing when things aren't going so well? Looking at the stock price, I would think the last thing apple needs is to issue dividends.

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You can do that with substantially less cash in reserve than Apple has. As the graph shows, in 2007, Apple had $10 billion on hand. Companies are a bit more conservative now, but I can't imagine they'd need more than $25-30 billion in reserve.

ArztMac said:

My prediction, 90% sure: Apple Inc. will repurchase TONS of their outstanding stock at outlandish prices. This makes SO much more sense than a dividend.

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Is that legal?

ArztMac said:

My prediction, 90% sure: Apple Inc. will repurchase TONS of their outstanding stock at outlandish prices. This makes SO much more sense than a dividend.

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Why? The stock price is already very high and all a stock buy back would do is increase the share price. My money is on a dividend of some sort. It is not Apple's money, it is the shareholders money. And if it is just going to sit there, it should be returned to them.

Scott Forstall has never been to Disney World, so first, Apple will send him there. Scott has been quoted as being very excited about Space Mountain.

Bob Mansfield will be installing a deck on the back of his house. He may also install a rain gauge.

Jony Ive intends on taking his kids out for breakfast every other Sunday for the rest of the year.

Peter Oppenheimer has been heard that he needs to "live a little" and will be stepping away from model railroading and plans on using some of the money to take up fly fishing.

Tim Cook plans on buying a new iPad.

stellaclose said:

Isn't most of this cash kept overseas and they didn't bring it back to the US for tax reasons???....I wonder how this would impact the dividend payments if this is indeed what they're planning on doing.

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I think about 40% of their cash is in the US vs. the rest overseas. That would give them plenty to distribute to American shareholders without repatriating cash. I believe if they distribute overseas cash to shareholders registered outside the US, that also would not trigger the repatriation tax.

Peace said:

Apple will announce the purchase of a major ***** company. The stock on both companies will be halted during the announcement so watch the market Monday.

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Like who? What large company could they possibly acquire without it being blocked by the DOJ? And they're philosophically opposed to adding non-Apple culture into the company. By which I mean non-Apple employees.