[Rumor] Apple to Announce Shareholder Dividend Payment

New York City, NY — Apple Inc. plans to release the details Monday of its internal discussions regarding its massive balance sheet. Analysts are expecting Apple to institute a dividend to shareholders.

Apple has $97.6 billion in cash and securities which it reported as of last year. To put the numbers in perspective if Apple decided to release a onetime dividend payment to shareholders it could easily top $100 per share. In reality the company s much more likely to announce a smaller recurring dividend.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer will hold a conference call at 9am, Monday morning.

A dividend would reward shareholders and open ownership of Apple shares to a wider range of funds. Many “value-oriented” funds are not allowed to buy stocks that don’t pay dividends. Analysts say the lack of a dividend or other meaningful way of using the cash has held down Apple’s share price.

Oppenheimer said on a quarterly conference call with analysts in January that the board was in “active” discussions about what to do with the massive pool of cash that the company was sitting on. Former CEO Steve Jobs, who died in October, was haunted by very lean years at Apple and refused to pay dividends.

Partly in anticipation of a dividend, Apple’s stock has risen 37 percent since the Jan. 24 conference call, closing much of the gap between analyst price targets and the actual stock price.Last month Apple shares rose above $600 per share for the first time. Apple is the world’s most valuable publicly traded company. Apple is worth more money than the economies of Poland, Thailand and Hong Kong.

Are you excited for the upcoming Apple Dividend?