Apple adds $50B to capital return program, increases quarterly dividend by 10%

In announcing its first quarterly revenue decline in 13 years, Apple on Tuesday said it will infuse another $50 billion into an ongoing capital return program, a move that comes with a $35 billion boost to the company's share repurchase initiative.

Apple's board of directors authorized the buyback on "strong" results, setting a repurchase authorization at $175 billion, up from $140 billion announced last year. Combined with past returns, the company plans to dish out a total of $250 billion to shareholders by the end of March 2018.

"We generated strong operating cash flow of $11.6 billion and returned $10 billion to shareholders through our capital return program during the March quarter," said Apple CFO Luca Maestri. "Thanks to the strength of our business results, we are happy to be announcing today a further increase of the program to $250 billion."

In addition to the capital returns, Apple said it also plans to continue to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units.

Related to stock repurchasing activities, Apple announced a 10 percent increase to its quarterly payout to investors, declaring a dividend of $0.57 per share, payable on May 12, 2016, to stockholders of record as of May 9, 2016.

The company said its capital return program has returned more than $163 billion to investors since its activation in August 2012, $117 billion of which came in the form of share repurchases.

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23 Comments

lkrupp

said about 7 years ago

How can apple increase dividends when they are filing for bankruptcy tomorrow?

amarkap

said about 7 years ago

Hello, perhaps AppleInsider is not the best place to ask and learn about how stock buy back works but most everyone seems pretty knowledgeable (at least more than me). So I wanted to ask. I purchased my shares at $127.00. Yes, it hasn't been easy to watch the share price plummet on me but I will hold onto the stock so as long as I use Apple products (which I do).

My one question is that I always thought when companies bought back shares of their own stock that that is supposed to be good for the shareholder and the price ought to go up a little bit. As I understood the Supply is going down so technically people ought to be paying more to own the fewer shares available. But that doesn't seem to happen (at least not to the guy holding at $127.00). So if it doesn't really cause the price to go up for us Shareholders why does Apple keep buying back shares? Perhaps they can spend that money on something else? Please don't make too much fun of me for asking this naïve question.

So thank you in advance for any insight and understanding.

koop

said about 7 years ago

sog35 said:

amarkap said:

Hello, perhaps AppleInsider is not the best place to ask and learn about how stock buy back works but most everyone seems pretty knowledgeable (at least more than me). So I wanted to ask. I purchased my shares at $127.00. Yes, it hasn't been easy to watch the share price plummet on me but I will hold onto the stock so as long as I use Apple products (which I do).
My one question is that I always thought when companies bought back shares of their own stock that that is supposed to be good for the shareholder and the price ought to go up a little bit. As I understood the Supply is going down so technically people ought to be paying more to own the fewer shares available. But that doesn't seem to happen (at least not to the guy holding at $127.00). So if it doesn't really cause the price to go up for us Shareholders why does Apple keep buying back shares? Perhaps they can spend that money on something else? Please don't make too much fun of me for asking this naïve question.
So thank you in advance for any insight and understanding.

It may take a while but I think your investment will pay off in the long term.

Yes buying back shares will eventually help the stock price but not always right away.

This is just my guess but I think Apple will be worth $300 in 10 years. Think long term. Traders almost always lose money in the market. Long term INVESTORS make money and wealth and save a ton on taxes also. If you believe in the company just hold the stock and don't worry about the stock price day to day. I'm holding over 1000 shares and I'm not sweating one bit.

Now that is rich.

5150iii

said about 7 years ago

Picked up 20 more shares in after-hours.

launfall

said about 7 years ago

The share price of Apple stock is a bargain right now, and Apple is wisely buying up shares on the cheap. When I bought 100 shares of Apple about 8 years ago it was at $95/share, but that was before the 6/1 split. At today's price my $9500 is worth $73,500. Apple believes, as do I, that history will repeat itself. I continue to invest my dividends in small Apple purchases of about 10 shares a year. I believe in the company because while they can sometimes be maddingly annoying and high-handed, they make a superior product that I have used since 1982. Buy what you know.