Apple's 2011 Annual Report: More Hiring, More Sales, No Dividends Coming

[MacRumors]

Apple today filed its 2011 annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the document reveals a few interesting tidbits of information:

- Apple now has 60,400 full time equivalent employees, up from 46,600 last year. The company also went from employing 2,800 full-time equivalent temporary employees and contractors to 2,900. 36,000 employees are in the retail division, up from 26,500 last year.

- Apple went from 317 stores at the end of fiscal 2010 to 357 stores at the end of fiscal 2011, an addition of 40 stores. The average number of employees per store also grew from 83.6 to 100.8.

- Ad spending grew from $691 million to $933 million, while dropping as a percentage of revenues to 0.8% from 1.0%. Research and development expenses were up 36% to $2.4 billion -- however, as a percentage of revenues R&D fell from 3% to 2.2%.

- As this document is designed mainly for prospective and current investors in the company, Apple also lists a number of risk factors that could affect investments in the company. These include "if [Apple] is found to have infringed on intellectual property rights", "support from third-party software developers", "the Company's ability to obtain components in sufficient quantities", and numerous more.

- "As of September 24, 2011, the Company owned or leased approximately 13.2 million square feet of building space, primarily in the U.S., and to a lesser extent, in Europe, Japan, Canada, and the Asia-Pacific regions. Of that amount approximately 7.0 million square feet was leased building space, which includes approximately 3.0 million square feet related to retail store space. Of the Company's owned building space, approximately 2.6 million square feet that is located in Cupertino, California will be demolished to build a second corporate campus. Additionally, the Company owns a total of 584 acres of land in various locations."

- Finally, "the Company anticipates that for the foreseeable future it will retain any earnings for use in the operation of its business" rather than paying any dividends or stock buybacks.

Article Link: Apple's 2011 Annual Report: More Hiring, More Sales, No Dividends Coming

 

[anberlinairlift]

Genius Bar tech for Apple; the dream job for a computer-nerd Apple fan like myself. It's too bad that the journey to Mordor would be an easier one than the journey to my nearest Apple Store.

 

[applefan289]

Apple is kick-ass!

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Come on Apple, do something cool with all that capital. OS XI with content-awareness and an AI assistant an stuff. Build cylons. Just... do something...

 

[*LTD*]

Looks like for the time being, the post-Jobs Apple talks and walks a lot like Jobs' Apple.

Nice to see.

 

[Worksafe]

Dividends

That is going to go over like lead ballon on Wall Street since there have been numerous people calling for a payout in dividends over the past few months. Wish I owned a few bucks worth of stock in the company.

 

[rdowns]

That is going to go over like lead ballon on Wall Street since there have been numerous people calling for a payout in dividends over the past few months. Wish I owned a few bucks worth of stock in the company.

No it won't. Those same idiots have been calling for a dividend for years. Growth companies don't pay dividends.

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

That is going to go over like lead ballon on Wall Street since there have been numerous people calling for a payout in dividends over the past few months. Wish I owned a few bucks worth of stock in the company.

This is nothing new. People have been calling for Apple to pay dividends for quite some time now. However, few things scream ignorance of Apple as a company, and the chemistry of what makes them successful as a company, quite like the expectation that they should be paying dividends.

 

[Will do good]

Having APPL going straight up is good enough for me. Those that are unhappy without dividends can always invest else where. If they think they can do better than APPL.

It's amazing how many fools and market experts offer advice to Apple regarding their investment, products etc... like they know better.

 

[applesith]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I bought stick knowing no dividends are in it's future. Anyone thinking differently is just kidding themselves or just was to complain.

 

[Matthew Yohe]

That is going to go over like lead ballon on Wall Street since there have been numerous people calling for a payout in dividends over the past few months. Wish I owned a few bucks worth of stock in the company.

Yes. Investors should expect some dividends out of AAPL any time now. Just look at the last time they paid out dividends as noted by a blue D:

 

[Consultant]

Probably enough to nuke Google Android devision.

That is going to go over like lead ballon on Wall Street since there have been numerous people calling for a payout in dividends over the past few months. Wish I owned a few bucks worth of stock in the company.

NOPE. It's been this way at apple for decades.

 

[kjs862]

Could not paying out dividends hurt Apple?

 

[filmantopia]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Apple retail was fun.

 

[staypuffinpc]

dividends?

Wall Street to Apple, "I thought you would pay dividends!"

Apple to Wall Street, "Think differently."

 

[gnasher729]

Could not paying out dividends hurt Apple?

Paying dividends = less cash.
Not paying dividends = more cash.

For every dollar of dividend per share that Apple pays out, the share price will drop by one dollar.

 

[aristotle]

Paying dividend reduces the capital value of the company.

Shares are now so divorced from the idea of owning part of the company now that it does not really make much sense to pay dividend to the "current" owner of the shares as they are bought and sold on a daily basis. They have become commodities in of themselves.

The only companies that pay dividends are those with a dropping or stagnant share price. MSFT is one such company.

 

[samcraig]

No it won't. Those same idiots have been calling for a dividend for years. Growth companies don't pay dividends.

Define growth company. Because Walmart has always paid dividends. Perhaps they don't fit your growth company "now" - but they've paid dividends since pretty much day 1.

 

[splashman]

Apple's efficiency

Note that most (9,500) of the added employees (11,000) are retail. So Apple has grown net sales by 66% while adding only 1,500 non-retail employees. The efficiency (revenue per employee) is incredible.

Even counting retail employees, the payroll only grew by 22%, compared to 66% net sales growth.

Awesome.

----------

Having APPL going straight up is good enough for me. Those that are unhappy without dividends can always invest else where. If they think they can do better than APPL.

It's amazing how many fools and market experts offer advice to Apple regarding their investment, products etc... like they know better.

I agree with you, of course. But if you're an Apple investor, you should probably try to remember that their ticker symbol is AAPL, not APPL.

 

[Steve's Barber]

Apple is kick-ass!

I feel like they kick the stockholder's asses...

...sitting on billions in cash and no dividends (again).

 

[splashman]

I feel like they kick the stockholder's asses...

...sitting on billions in cash and no dividends (again).

Yeah, I'm sure you'll see stockholders rioting in the streets any minute. 12-month share price growth of 92.5% would send anyone into a rage.

Yawn.

----------

Come on Apple, do something cool with all that capital. OS XI with content-awareness and an AI assistant an stuff. Build cylons. Just... do something...

Good advice. For Microsoft, that is.

Our buddy Mr. Jobs thought different. The phrase "just do something" would never have come from his mouth. Nor, I am sure, from the mouths of any Apple employee who valued their employment.

 

[budselectjr]

I don't mind them not paying a dividend. Using the money for acquisitions and supply chain improvements is good enough for me.

Those complaining about how high the stock price is and feeling bullish can always buy call options.

 

[you people smh]

Paying dividends = less cash.
Not paying dividends = more cash.

For every dollar of dividend per share that Apple pays out, the share price will drop by one dollar.

This is just laughably incorrect, and written with such confidence too. wow.

 

[angrytoothbrush]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

That is going to go over like lead ballon on Wall Street since there have been numerous people calling for a payout in dividends over the past few months. Wish I owned a few bucks worth of stock in the company.

No it won't. Those same idiots have been calling for a dividend for years. Growth companies don't pay dividends.

Any who would be upset about the lack of dividends doesn't understand financials at all... Lol Reinvest that Cap, Apple!

 

[Doctor Q]

Apple went from 317 stores at the end of fiscal 2010 to 357 stores at the end of fiscal 2011, an addition of 40 stores. The average number of employees per store also grew from 83.6 to 100.8.

No doubt those stores in China helped increase the average.