Apple has $163 billion to burn, and Tim Cook plans to spend it

That’s a lot of cash to spend on buybacks, capital expenditures, and potentially a few acquisitions

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Home Industries Computers/Electronics Apple has $163 billion to burn, and Tim Cook plans to spend it By Emily Bary Published: Feb 1, 2018 9:21 p.m. ET

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That’s a lot of cash to spend on buybacks, capital expenditures, and potentially a few acquisitions

MarketWatch photo illustration/Getty Images, iStockphoto Apple Inc. left things vague last month when it announced a plan to invest money from its sizable cash balance into the U.S. economy, but the company was more direct about its plans Thursday — it’s going to spend more than $160 billion of its own money.

“Our current net cash position is $163 billion, and given the increased financial and operational flexibility from the access to our foreign cash, we are targeting to become approximately net-cash neutral over time,” Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said on the company’s earnings call.

Translated from corporate speak, that means Apple AAPL, +0.70% plans to spend that $163 billion and eventually stop collecting huge stores of cash as it has over the past decade, when the company built up about $284 billion in cash reserves while using more than $100 billion in debt to fund shareholder returns and other activities. Pressed to elaborate on what “over time” actually meant, Maestri said Apple would say more in its next quarterly report, when the company typically updates its shareholder-return plans.

The bulk of that money will likely head right back to investors. The company added $50 billion to its shareholder-return plan last year for buybacks and dividends, increasing its program to about $300 billion, and announced a $50 billion increase the year before, as well. Maestri said the company typically returns approximately 100% of its free cash flow to investors, “so that is the approach that we’re going to be taking.”

If Apple decided to double its typical annual increase this spring, however, the company would still have $63 billion in net cash left to spend. There are a number of different ways that the company could use this money. Apple said in its January announcement that it would invest “over $10 billion” in data-center expansions. The company also set out to build a new campus and “create” 20,000 jobs — though it didn’t actually say whether it would hire 20,000 full-time Apple employees.

Apple could also spend some of its net-cash balance to scoop up other companies. Speaking to this point on Apple’s earnings call, Maestri implied that Apple wasn’t looking to change its strategy around acquisitions.

“The thought process is always to acquire something that allows us to either accelerate our product road maps, filling a gap in our portfolio, [or] providing a new experience to customers,” he said, adding that Apple looks “at all sizes and we will continue to do so.”

Apple made 19 acquisitions in 2017, Maestri noted, but all are thought to be smaller purchases, which has been Apple’s typical approach. The company’s largest acquisition to date has been Beats, which it purchased for $3 billion back in 2014. Some have speculated that Apple might make a splashy move, buying Netflix Inc. NFLX, -1.04% or Walt Disney Co. DIS, +1.67% .

Those are well out of the company’s price range even if it only increases shareholder return by $50 billion, though, with market values of $115 billion and $167 billion, respectively, and that’s before factoring in the likely hefty premium one would have to pay to buy one of these giants. Apple will probably think smaller with its cash, looking for tuck-in acquisitions that add talent and give the company a base on which to build future product enhancements.

Investors hungry for a piece of that cash sent shares up more than 3% in late trading Thursday. The stock was already up 30.3% over the past 12 months, compared with a 31.6% gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.14% , of which Apple is a component.

Article by MarketWatch.com Link (Source): https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-has-163-billion-to-burn-and-tim-cook-plans-to-spend-it-2018-02-01

Note: Apple a nearly $1 Trillion market cap company have to-date only biggest acquisition is buying Beats for $3 Billion.

Submitted February 02, 2018 at 06:30AM by snack-fu-bling http://ift.tt/2DXqyPo