Apple Expected To Announce A Dividend After Almost 18 Years

Daniel Mbure on Mar 19th 2012 in Business 0

Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer will have a conference call today with investors, and many analysts predict that the company may offer a dividend to shareholders after almost 18 years of not paying dividends.

These sentiments, informed by statements Tim Cook made earlier on in the year, said that the cash Apple holds is much more than required to run the company.

Apple currently has close to $100 billion in cash that it holds both in the US as well as overseas, and expectations this year will generate a further $75 billion in revenues. The company last issued a dividend in 1995 while the late Steve Jobs was out of the company after the ouster that exited him.

The company, however, caught up dwindling computer sales and an increasingly hostile competitive market, and on Steve Job’s return, all dividends halted and shareholders did not receive any since then.

Image via Wikipedia

The company has nevertheless restored its market domination with three game-changing products: the iPod, iPhone and iPad, all of which have been phenomenal successes.

The late Steve Jobs was known for his anti-philanthropic stance and many people saw his stance as one that put Apple, as an entity, above its shareholders and employees.

It will stick in people’s minds that he halted charity gifts during his tenure while increasingly tightening employee benefits. New CEO Tim Cook has turned this around by softening Apple’s charity stance, as well as increasing perks to Apple employees.

The company is set to offer at least $2 per share quarterly earnings dividends, or around $14 per share annualized dividend earnings.