dividend

Apple sells a record $17 billion in debt

Apple had a field day with its first debt offering since 1996.

Investors hungrily gobbled up $17 billion in Apple bonds, the largest offering in corporate history. The proceeds will be used to help fund the company's ambitious plan to return value to shareholders through share repurchases and dividend payouts.

The bond sale comes on the heels of Apple's plans to double its capital return program, which involves spending an additional $55 billion in dividend payments to investors. Apple also said it would be spending an extra $50 billion in repurchasing company stock along with increasing its quarterly … Read more

Apple boosts stock buyback, ups dividend 15 percent

Apple boosted its stock buyback and approved a 15 percent increase in its quarterly dividend.

With some $145 billion now in Apple's coffers, investors have clamored for management to return more cash to shareholders. Now the company is responding -- big time. Apple said Tuesday afternoon that it intends to use "a total of $100 billion of cash under the expanded program."

As part of the program, Apple increased its share repurchase authorization to $60 billion, up from $10 billion announced last year. The company said it was the largest single share-repurchase authorization in Apple's history. … Read more

Apple's cash hoard could reach $170 billion by year's end

Apple could end up with $170 billion in cash by the end of 2012 unless it learns to share more with investors.

With around $137 billion in cash as of the end of 2012, Apple is the biggest cash-rich company outside of the banking industry, according to Moody's. As such, it's faced increasing pressure to return more of that money to its investors.

Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn, a major Apple investor, recently filed a lawsuit against Apple over guidelines regarding the issuance of preferred stock. Though Einhorn dropped the suit early this month, Apple still is being … Read more

Apple may up dividend by more than 50 percent, say analysts

Apple will likely tap into its hefty hoard of cash to fund a dividend increase of more than 50 percent, according to a consensus of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

A quarterly dividend rise of 56 percent would cost Apple $4.14 per share, or $15.7 billion a year. That seems like a lot of money to most companies. But Apple is sitting on cash of $100 billion and has been under pressure to return some of that money to its shareholders.

Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn, a major Apple investor, has criticized the company for not sharing its … Read more

Apple to dole out $2.5 billion to shareholders

Apple shareholders will be cashing in tomorrow -- the day has come for the second installment of the mega-rich company's dividend program. Apple, which has 935 million outstanding shares, will distribute $2.65 per share to its shareholders -- adding up to a grand total of a $2.5 billion payout, according to Apple Insider.

This is just the second time in the last 17 years that Apple has paid some of its excesses to its shareholders. The company, which hasn't paid a regular cash dividend since 1995, has billions in cash and liquid assets and carries no … Read more

Tim Cook opts out of $75M worth of company dividends

Tim Cook has twice been placed atop the list of highest-paid CEOs in recent weeks, and a new legal filing suggests he's not particularly greedy for more.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today, Apple notes that Cook will not be taking the dividend equivalents on his restricted units, a detail of considerable importance given the grant of 1 million restricted stock units last year.

"At Mr. Cook's request, none of his restricted stock units will participate in dividend equivalents," the company said in the filing, which was flagged by MacRumors. &… Read more

The 404 1,030: Where bubble is a bad word (podcast)

Aunt Jill Schlesinger of CBS Moneywatch and Jill on Money is back in the studio today answering all your financial questions and helping us make sense of Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram.

She also gets heated with another social network -- LinkedIn. We'll collectively discover the perils of stalking your ex-coworkers on the site and why an active profile on LinkedIn is kind of like cheating on your current employer.… Read more

Bonus for Apple shareholders

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Why technology companies loathe dividends

Ask a technology company about the prospects for a dividend and publicly, you'll probably get a boring boilerplate answer about timing, the right use of cash, and its commitment to honoring fiduciary duties.

Inside, however, that company is probably snickering and dismissing the idea completely.

Why are technology companies--even major bellwethers sitting on a lot of cash--reluctant to pay a dividend? The short answer: it's uncool.

For most companies, paying a dividend is the ultimate admission that the growth phase (also known as the fun period) is over. Dividends are more associated with safe industries like utility companies, … Read more

Apple taps $100B cash pile to pay dividend, buy back stock

Apple plans to pay a dividend, finally putting to use a portion of its $100 billion cash hoard.

The company said it 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.

In addition, Apple's board has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in company's fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years.

"We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased … Read more