Apple is paying shareholders a slightly larger quarterly dividend than previously announced. Thursday, the company will be distributing over $2.867 billion in $3.05 per share payments across the company’s 940 million outstanding shares. The Cupertino firm had initially stated that it would pay its shareholders a $2.65 per share dividend.
Flush with billions in cash it simply can’t spend fast enough, Apple first announced plans for a dividend program a year ago last March, alongside a $10 billion share buyback program. It was the first time the company had paid a dividend in 17 years.
Shareholders “of record” on Monday May 13 will be paid today. However, any shares changing hands must settle first, making May 8 the last day to have bought a share to qualify for the current dividend.
In its last earnings conference call, the company’s chief executive Tim Cook announced that, after paying out more than $10 billion over the past year in dividends, the company would launch “an aggressive plan that more than doubles the size of the [existing] capital return program” beginning this quarter.
