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Apple to pay dividend, start share buybacks
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E-mail CNTV, March 20, 2012
For the first time in 17 years, big time tech company Apple Inc. has unveiled a dividend. The corporation has finally put their pile of cash to work on Monday, introducing a quarterly dividend of 2.65 dollars per share and starting a 10 billion dollar share buyback program.
If cash is king- then Apple has been perched comfortably on its throne for some time. With over $97 billion on hand- it easily rules Moody's list of the top cash rich U.S. companies. Now that it has announced a dividend and a buyback- the rest of the cash rich list is getting a looking over.
Microsoft and Cisco are in second and third place- and already pay dividends. But it's the next name that could have investors searching for a payout. Howard Silverblatt of S&P Indices:
Howard Silverblatt, senior analyst of S&P Indices, said, "Google is the largest company; currently has enormous cash and has the ability so what you need in that case is for them to decide to do it just as Apple made the decision to do it."
According to Moody's, Google has about $44 billion cash on hand. The technology industry has more cash than any other U.S. sector- much of it is held overseas- often to avoid U.S. taxes.
At the same time - tech companies are under pressure to have money on hand for things like acquisitions or research that will produce the next product to drive growth.
Michael Gayed, the Chief Investment Strategist at Pension Partners LLC, said, "In general, tech companies when they initiate dividends, it's not really seen as a positive because the implication is well then they can't find other growth opportunities and technology as a sector tends to be a growth sector."
But despite that perception, tech companies have begun to share the wealth. Howard Silverblatt, senior analyst of S&P Indices, said, "Technology does pay relatively well now. It's difficult to grasp that if you go back about 15 years ago but I think it came of age in 2003 with Microsoft and this is a continuation of that."
