Back in April, Apple announced that it would be launching a capital return program that would cost it around $100 billion. Basically, the company is going to buy back most of its shares that are being traded in the open market. When the program was first announced, Apple said that it the third quarter of 2013 it would purchase 10 million shares. However, the company’s share price has dropped significantly since then, so ultimately it ended up buying back some 36 million of its shares for $16 billion.
The $16 billion was divided as follows: $14 billion was spent from Apple’s accelerated share repurchase program whereas $4 billion worth of shares were purchased on the open market. The average price that Apple paid for these shares was $444.44. To put things in perspective, Apple’s share price at this time last year was over $630. The share repurchase program will run through 2015, with Apple sending as much as $60 billion in authorized share buybacks. The company will also increase its quarterly dividend by 15 percent. Over the next two years, Apple will spend $44 billion to purchase its shares. The company’s cash reserves currently exceed $140 billion.
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