Apple’s tax break yields $102B boon for shareholders

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Apple’s tax break on its overseas profits is turning into a $102 billion boon for shareholders.

The iPhone maker is raising its quarterly dividend by 16 percent to 73 cents per share, matching the largest increase since Apple restored the payment under shareholder pressure six years ago.

Raising the dividend by 10 cents per share will cost Apple an additional $2 billion annually, based on its current outstanding stock.

Apple also will spend $100 billion more buying back its stock, a move that will enrich shareholders by helping to drive up the company’s stock price. It also reduces the number of shares trading, which increases earnings per share — a key yardstick for measuring a company’s value.

Tuesday’s announcement marks the first time that Apple has provided a glimpse into how much its shareholders will benefit from a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code championed by President Donald Trump and approved by Congress late last year.

A provision in the package temporarily lowered the taxes that companies pay when they bring cash stashed overseas back to the U.S. That rate was cut to 15.5 percent, far below the 35 percent that would have been imposed before.

No company benefited more from that cut than Apple, which had accumulated more than $250 billion outside the U.S. during the past decade, thanks to the immense popularity of the iPhone and other products.