Apple has announced its intention to initiate a quarterly dividend plan of $2.65 per share during Q42012. Additionally, during the impromptu financial call this morning, Apple also announced that the company’s board of directors authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program, starting during the companies fiscal 2013 (begins September 30, 2012).
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, on the new plans:
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 … Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.
There you have it. Despite many wondering if Apple had made a huge purchase late last night when the news broke about the financial call, it turns out Apple plans on a nice little dividend program and buy back program instead. Can’t really complain much about that if you’re a stockholder, which I’m not — you know, for the record.
Update: The Macworld team has put together a transcript of the call. If you’re interested in reading exactly what went on, we recommend checking out their article.
