Apple will pay shareholders only its second dividend in 17 years tomorrow, paying out $2.65 per share across the company’s 935 million outstanding shares, adding up to a river of money pouring out of the Apple coffers to the tune of $2.5 billion.
Flush with billions in cash it simply can’t spend fast enough, Apple first announced plans for a dividend program in March, alongside a $10 billion share buyback program. Each quarter, the company stated it will pay its shareholders a $2.65 per share dividend. Shareholders of record will receive dividend payments tomorrow, November 15th.
Apple has stated that over the next three years, its buyback and dividend plans will distribute $45 billion from its cash pile. Quarterly dividends will amount to $2.5 billion per quarter.
Apple has earned money faster than it’s paying it out though, so the $2.5 billion quarterly dividend payments haven’t reduced Apple’s amazing pile-o’-cash over the last two quarters. In the June quarter, the company announced the accumulation of an additional $7 billion in cash, and its most recent earnings report showed that it had brought in another $4.2 billion, leaving it with a Scrooge McDuck-like pile of cash amounting to $121.4 billion in cash at the end of fiscal 2012.
While the company’s dividend payments could be considered modest when compared to its cash position, its $2.5 billion in quarterly dividend payments makes it one of the highest dividend payers in the United States.
