Apple announces long-awaited dividend

US technology giant Apple, the world’s most valuable company, has finally yielded to pressure from shareholders to hand out some of its cash.

The California-based company announced a $10 billion (£6.3bn) share buyback program and said it would introduce a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share.

The dividend payments will start in the company’s fourth fiscal quarter, from 1 July. At $10.60 a year the yield will be just 1.8 per cent of the current share price, which has soared to record highs close to $600 as investors anticipated that Apple would start handing out some of the $97bn cash pile it has accumulated.

The share buybacks, which will offset the shares issued to reward staff in recent years, will begin in the company’s next fiscal year, starting on 30 September, and run for three years.

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