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Apple set for dividend payout
Wed, 15th Aug 2012
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Apple will issue its first quarterly dividend to shareholders in 17 years on Thursday, and begin buying back some of its shares.

After making the announcement in March, the technology company will begin issuing dividends of US$2.65 per share every quarter, with the first to start August 16.

The move will be Apple’s first dividend declaration since 1995, with the total amount of the quarterly dividend expected to be around $2.6bn per quarter.

"We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure," said Tim Cook, Apple CEO in March this year.

"You'll see more of all of these in the future. Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business – so we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase programme."

Increased sales of iPhones and iPads have helped the company generate extra money with $45bn expected to be used over the next three years from its $97.6bn cash pile.