Telecom Lead America: Devices major Apple said it will
offer a quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share in July and will buy back up to $10
billion of its stock, which will begin on September 30, 2012.
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 out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of
these in the future,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
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.
Cook added the company would still maintain a war chest
for other strategic opportunities.
Combining dividends, share repurchases, and cash used to
net-share-settle vesting RSUs, we anticipate utilizing approximately $45
billion of domestic cash in the first three years of our programs. We are
extremely confident in our future and see tremendous opportunities ahead,” said
Peter Oppenheimer, CFO of Apple.
According to a market analyst, Apple has $98 billion in
cash and securities, equal to about $104 a share.
Recently, Apple launched the new iPad called iPad 3 or
iPad HD, featuring new Retina display, aimed at the growing 4G LTE users
globally.
According to IDC,
Apple is the current tablet market leader with 54.7 percent in Q4 2011 Apple
shipped 15.4 million units in Q4, up from 11.1 million units in Q3 2011,
representing 54.7 percent market share.
