No Apple dividend today
February 23, 2012: 1:58 PM ETCEO Tim Cook reiterated his previous position: We're looking at it carefully
As expected, the issue of what Apple (AAPL) plans to do with its roughly $100 billion in cash came up at the company's annual shareholder meeting Thursday.
It was the first question from the floor, and CEO Tim Cook had an opportunity to make an announcement, if he were so inclined.
He was not.
According to reports from inside the meeting, he reiterated the comments he made at the Goldman Sachs conference last week: We're "thinking very deeply" about the question ... the board wants to do what's best for the shareholders ... please have patience.
In other words, no announcement today.
Later in the meeting, in response to a question about a stock split, Cook also seemed to rule that out. The stock might get a short-term pop, he said, but in the long term a split does nothing.
Apple's share price climbed as high as $517.83 in late morning trading, before the start of the 1:00 p.m. ET meeting. The stock fell to its low for the day when the meeting was about half over, but bounced at about $510 a share.
It closed at $516.39, up $3.35 (0.65%) for the day.
