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PALO ALTO – Apple plans to start paying a dividend to investors in the later part of the year. The company has more than $100 billion dollars in cash reserves. It says the quarterly dividend would be $2.65 a share, or about $2.5 billion paid out each quarter. In addition, Apple plans to buy back $10 billion of its shares over a three-year period.

CEO Tim Cook, in a conference call this morning, said the dividend and the buy back program are intended to attract investors and strengthen the company’s stock value. “We felt it would be the right action to initiate a dividend and expand Apple shareholder base in the process.” He also says the dividend and stock repurchase program will be continually evaluated.

Analysts say Apple’s dividend would be the 2nd largest, only behind AT&T, of companies in the S&P 500.

Tags: Apple, AT&T, dividend, S&P 500, Tim Cook
 
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