Over each of the last 10 years, in fact, Apple has used the announcement of March-quarter earnings to provide the market with an update on its capital-return policy.
Apple has been aggressively returning cash to holders for years now, mostly in the form of stock repurchases, but also with gradually increasing dividends.
Apple currently pays a quarterly dividend of 23 cents a share, for a yield of 0.6%. The company raised the rate last year by a penny, or a little under 5%. The year before that, the increase was 7%. It would seem logical to think Apple will raise the rate this year once again by a penny, which would be 4%, to 24 cents quarterly—although a 2-cent increase, or a little under 9%—would bring the annualized rate to a nice round dollar.
Last year, Apple’s board approved a $90 billion buyback authorization, matching the one from the year before. Over the last five years combined, the company has announced $405 billion in stock buybacks. Since the end of fiscal 2017, the company on a split-adjusted basis has repurchased 4.7 billion shares, reducing share count by 23%.