Apple May Announce ‘Significant’ Dividend, Gamco’s Ward Says

Apple Inc., the iPhone and iPad maker that has $81.6 billion in cash and investments, will probably issue a “significant” dividend next year, according to Howard Ward of Gamco Investors Inc.

While the company has increased net income every year since at least 2002, Cupertino, California-based Apple hasn’t paid out cash to shareholders. The stock has jumped 53-fold since the end of 2002 after former Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs transformed the Mac maker into a producer of mobile phones and tablet computers. Jobs, who died in October, was replaced as CEO in August by Tim Cook.