Apple Inc. Hoarding Cash

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Apple, Inc.’s Cash Hoard Apple is an extremely profitable company and is continuously building up large stockpiles of cash, currently at around incredible $98 billion [5]. This has advantages and disadvantages. The current state of the economy is associated with a certain risk of government default, bringing with it higher interest rates. Also with US president election coming up this year the economic climate are more uncertain then usual. This make it lucrative for companies to finance with internally generated cash, which is the most liquid asset. A drawback is that Apple earned a mere 0.77% on its cash and investments in fiscal year of 2011 [5]. The disadvantage is that the rate of return is close to the inflation rate. Apple has not debt and therefore no apparent reason to pile up cash, if they cannot invest it at a higher return than their current interest rate allows. Though another way of looking at it is that Apple is only waiting for the really good investments, and that opportunity offset the lost revenue of hoarding cash at a low interest rate. Stockpiling cash increases grumbles from stakeholders for dividend or share buy backs. Apple’s war chest has grown faster than even the loftiest projections, and for Apple’s CEO Tim Cock more money brings more problems. Approximately 64% of Apple’s cash is overseas, which induce the issue of hefty tax to bring in into the United States [5]. An Apple share of stock is merely a claim on a portion of their future cash flow. Shareholders expect that Apple either profitably invest the cash they acquire or return it to the shareholders via dividends or by buying back shares. Apple CEO Tim Cook and his board of directors in November 2011 shelled out around $400 million worth of restricted stock units to their top talent [3]. When employees exercise stock grants or options, shareholders suffer dilution, as these

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