Topping the market - over 50% raise in Apple dividend

Northern, WI 03/19/2013 (avauncer) - Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares up by 2.72% to close at $455.72 is all set to hike its dividend by 50 percent. Investors had been pressurizing the company to come up with some concrete returns plans for them as it had huge cash deposits and investments. The company may add between $40-$42 bullion in cash balance to its existing reserves this year. It has been fighting investor criticism for years now and had tried last year to address the growing cash pile by restoring its dividend but investors have been more demanding. Apple was near bankruptcy when Jobs retuned and revived it by launching products such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod.

The highest in the market

Einhorn’s Greenlight is one of the major investors in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and it is said to hold over 1.3 million shares of the company.  General market growth had shown a slowdown and competition from rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd (KRX:005930) shares up by 2.77% to close at $1,485,000.00 has been on the rise. Apple had been delaying the announcement and now investors who have overall been hit by a major share slump will be yielding the highest returns in the American technology industry. The company plans to increase the quarterly dividend by $4.14 per share which is a 56 percent hike. The annual payout will work out to $15.7 million and will be the highest amongst peers such as Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) shares down by 0.54% to close at $21.26 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) up by 0.23% to close at $28.10.

The general opinion in the market has been one of wonder about the fact that it has taken Apple such a long time to reach this decision. There is a definite possibility that the company will announce either a buyback or a divined by April itself.