$100 Billion

Apple reached 100 billion dollars in cash at the end of last year, an unprecedented amount of money. the nearest company is Microsoft floating around half of that amount. This led to the announcement Apple made stating that "it would at last return some of its cash pile to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks, at a cost of more than $10 billion a year for the next three years." In history such a move is usually done by large companies running out of technology and expansion, but this is not so with Apple. Apple continues to ""pump out" new technological hits, the perfect example being "late Monday, Apple said it had sold three million of its new iPads since they were introduced on Friday." Apple said it would pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share beginning in its fiscal fourth quarter which starts July 1. Apple's board had authorized a $10 billion share buyback starting september 30th. Apple expects to spend about $45 billion over three years.This also opens doors for more investors as some could not or would not invest without a dividend being returned. In short, Apple is still growing like a new company.