Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Apple May Announce ‘Significant’ Dividend


Apple Inc., the iPhone and iPad maker that has $81.6 billion in cash and investments, will probably issue a “significant” dividend next year, according to Howard Ward of Gamco Investors Inc.

While the company has increased net income every year since at least 2002, Cupertino, California-based Apple hasn’t paid out cash to shareholders. The stock has jumped 53-fold since the end of 2002 after former Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs transformed the Mac maker into a producer of mobile phones and tablet computers. Jobs, who died in October, was replaced as CEO in August by Tim Cook.

“We’re going to see a dividend announced for Apple at some point in the first half of 2012,” Ward, a money manager who helps oversee about $36.1 billion for Gamco Investors Inc., said in an interview today with “Street Smart” on Bloomberg Television. “That could easily be a 3 percent dividend-yielding stock or even higher.”

Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, declined to comment. (P.S. What do these guys get the big bucks for anyway? )

Read more at http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-20/apple-may-announce-significant-dividend-gamco-s-ward-says.html

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