$2.65 per share now – and more to come
,
Apple is to spread a bit of cheer to despondent investors later today [15th November 2012] when it distributes $2.5 billion in dividends for only the second time in 17 years. Until now shareholders have relied on the soaring price of Apple stock to get a return. But more recently Apple’s star has started to wane amid criticism that its latest iPhone and other devices are lacklustre and that, without the vision of founder Steve Jobs who died in October, it has lost its direction. In just two months its price has slumped from $715 to $536 on Nasdaq last night and with still no guarantee it will not plunge to beneath the $500 mark.
Its fortunes stand in stark contrast to what analysts had been predicting and what the market had been hoping for. Soon after the launch of iPhone 4 and the iPad, Apple’s share price entered into a dream run, soaring to $600 till around mid September this year.
Many analysts even started predicting that Apple’s stock could touch $1000.
But it’s sudden descent punctured the hopes of many investors and, with latest Gartner research indicating that Apple is further losing out in sales to Samsung and other Android players, billions were wiped off the capitalisation of the world’s biggest company.
In what now looks like a move to assuage investor misery, however, Apple has agreed to a rare dividend payment of $2.65 per share spread across the 935 million outstanding stock.
Despite its plummeting share price it’s something that Apple can well afford given that its coffers are flush with billions in spare cash.
In the company’s June quarter it announced the accumulation of an additional $7 billion while in its most recent earnings report Apple revealed a further $4.2 billion had been accumulated, leaving it with $121.4 billion in cash at the end of its fiscal 2012 as reported in October.
Meanwhile Apple’s CEO Tim Cook insists the sudden payout will not be at the expense of cutting back elsewhere, claiming the manufacturer is still committed to investing heavily in R&D, acquisitions, new stores and strategic supply chain partnerships.
“Even with these investments,” he declared, “we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business.”
In a separate move to bolster the share price he revealed the company would also be embarking on a programme to buy back its own stock.
Apple says it will continue paying new quarterly dividends with today’s $2.5 billion pay-out making it one of the US’s highest dividend payers.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق