Apple Shareholders Meeting: No News, No Complaints, No Dividend

Apple’s shareholders meeting Thursday, its first with Tim Cook as CEO, was as anticlimactic and uneventful as they come.

Shareholders reelected the company’s board of directors, with each member garnering more than 80 percent approval. And the company did not announce the dividend or share buyback for which some investors have been calling, despite Cook’s remark last week suggesting that the board has been considering the subject.

“I’d be the first to admit we have more cash than we need to run the daily business,” Cook said of the company’s nearly $100 billion in cash and investments. “So we’re actively discussing it. I only ask for a bit of patience, so we can do it in a way that’s best for the shareholders.”

Evidently, Cook’s request for patience was not a euphemism for “expect a dividend announcement next week,” because he reiterated that position at today’s meeting.

“On cash, we’ve been thinking about cash very deeply, the board has been looking into what is in shareholders’ best interest,” he said. “My message there is that the board and the management team are thinking about this very deeply … and we will do what we think is in the best interest of shareholders.”

In other words, be patient.