APPLE INC | 2013 | FY |

Note 7 – Shareholders’ Equity

Preferred Stock

The Company has five million shares of authorized preferred stock, none of which is issued or outstanding. Under the terms of the Company’s Restated Articles of Incorporation, the Board of Directors is authorized to determine or alter the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of the Company’s authorized but unissued shares of preferred stock.

Dividend and Stock Repurchase Program

The Company declared and paid cash dividends per common share during the periods presented as follows:

 

		2013
		Dividends  Per Share				Amount (in  millions)
First quarter		$	2.65			$	2,486
Second quarter		$	2.65				2,490
Third quarter		$	3.05				2,789
Fourth quarter		$	3.05				2,763
						$	10,528

The Company paid cash dividends of $2.65 per share, totaling $2.5 billion, during the fourth quarter of 2012. Future dividends are subject to declaration by the Board of Directors.

In 2012, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to $10 billion of the Company’s common stock beginning in 2013. In April 2013, the Company’s Board of Directors increased the share repurchase program authorization from $10 billion to $60 billion, of which $23.0 billion had been utilized as of September 28, 2013. The Company’s share repurchase program does not obligate it to acquire any specific number of shares. Under the program, shares may be repurchased in privately negotiated and/or open market transactions, including under plans complying with Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”).

In August 2012, the Company entered into an accelerated share repurchase arrangement (“ASR”) with a financial institution to purchase up to $1.95 billion of the Company’s common stock in 2013. In the first quarter of 2013, 2.6 million shares were initially delivered to the Company. In April 2013, the purchase period for the ASR ended and an additional 1.5 million shares were delivered to the Company. In total, 4.1 million shares were delivered under the ASR at an average repurchase price of $478.20 per share. The shares were retired in the quarters they were delivered, and the up-front payment of $1.95 billion was accounted for as a reduction to shareholders’ equity in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheet in the first quarter of 2013.

In April 2013, the Company entered into a new ASR program with two financial institutions to purchase up to $12 billion of the Company’s common stock. In exchange for up-front payments totaling $12 billion, the financial institutions committed to deliver shares during the ASR’s purchase periods, which will end during 2014. The total number of shares ultimately delivered, and therefore the average price paid per share, will be determined at the end of the applicable purchase period based on the volume weighted average price of the Company’s stock during that period. During the third quarter of 2013, 23.5 million shares were initially delivered to the Company and retired. This does not represent the final number of shares to be delivered under the ASR. The up-front payments of $12 billion were accounted for as a reduction to shareholders’ equity in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheet.

The Company reflected the ASRs as a repurchase of common stock for purposes of calculating earnings per share and as forward contracts indexed to its own common stock. The forward contracts met all of the applicable criteria for equity classification, and, therefore, were not accounted for as derivative instruments.

During 2013, the Company repurchased 19.4 million shares of its common stock in the open market at an average price of $464.11 per share for a total of $9.0 billion. These shares were retired upon repurchase.