Apple reveal share repurchase scheme
Following a conference call this afternoon detailing the plans for their $100 billion cash reserves, Apple have announced that they will be investing ten billion dollars in a share repurchasing scheme.
Bascially, Apple will be spending the next three years buying stock in … er… Apple. Which, considering the Cupertino company’s current stratospheric popularity, probably isn’t a bad idea.
Apple will also be making regular dividend payments to existing shareholders, serving up its first quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share in the last quarter of 2012. According to the Financial Times, that’s a dividend yield of 1.8 per cent; less than Microsoft, but higher than that of IBM. Dividend payments will likely hit around $2.5 billion dollars per quarter.
Between dividend payments and share repurchases, Apple are thought to have allocated around $45 billion of their reserves for the next three years. Not that that should make too much of a dent in the company’s fortunes, riding high on the back of the new iPad 3 launch, and with a new MacBook Air/Pro line and iPhone 5 both expected to land before the Autumn.
