Apple to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

In response to calls to "do something" about the excess cash Apple has been piling up (about $98 billion at the moment), Apple today plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program, starting later in 2012..


Apple plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012. Apple also has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program to start in the Apple's fiscal 2013 business year, which begins on September 30, 2012. 


The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.


You might argue that Apple alternatively could have plowed more of its cash back into building its business, but Apple in recent years has been cautious about undertaking large acquisitions, so the refusal to make a big, "game-changing" acquisition was not unexpected. 


The new plans might represent a cash outlay of about $15 billion a year.