What Will Apple Do With Their Cash Horde?

Early Monday morning, a $100 billion question will be answered - what is Apple going to do with their swelling cash horde?

At the end of last year, Apple held a staggering $97.6 billion (that's BILLION) in cash and securities. That number has surely swelled to well over $100 billion over the past couple of months.

Apple revealed earlier this year that the company was in "active discussions" regarding their enviable pile of cash, leading many to wonder what the world's most valuable publicly traded company would end up doing with the money.

The most common prediction is that Apple will institute a recurring dividend. This would open up the company to even more potential shareholders, as many value-oriented funds and investors do not buy (or can not buy) companies that don't pay out a dividend.

Other potential possibilities for how Apple will choose to utilize their cash stock pile: a) pay out a large one-time dividend b) use the cash to finance larger acquisitions (seems unlikely) c) do nothing at all.

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Apple has built such a large pile of cash because former CEO Steve Jobs was notoriously wary of returning cash to shareholders. Apple endured many "lean" years, and these times surely had a big impact on Jobs' opinion of how extra cash should be handled.

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Many market watchers believe that Apple will announce the implementation of a recurring dividend on Monday morning. This belief, along with the recent release of the iPad 3, have helped to propel Apple into the stratosphere over the past few months.

Filed under: General Market News