CUPERTINO, California (Reuters) – Apple Inc has no plans to declare a dividend or buy back stock, Chief ExecutiveSteve Jobs told the annual meeting of shareholders on Tuesday, addingthat iPhone sales were on track.
Jobs said he was confident that Apple would hit its 2008 salestarget of 10 million iPhones, a figure which some analysts havequestioned in the face of a weaker U.S. economy, and executives saidthe communications device would reach Asian markets this year.
But Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook was elusive on timing for selling into the key market of China.
"We will enter Asia with the iPhone in 2008 … We will one dayenter China, we’re not saying when, and we will one day enter India,"Cook said.
Jobs was asked if the company planned to start paying a dividend orinitiate a stock buyback program. "At this time, we have no plans to doeither," he told shareholders.
The company’s stockpile of cash and short-term investments topped$18 billion at the end of last year, leading to speculation about howthe maker of iPods, iPhones and Macintosh computers might spend some ofits cash reserves.
Shares of Apple were up 57 cents at $122.30 in afternoon trade on Nasdaq.
Investors at the meeting took the opportunity to tell managementthat they wanted more of a say in how the company was run, passing aresolution in favor of an annual advisory vote by shareholders onexecutive compensation.
The proposal had been opposed by the board of directors. It urgedthe board to put up to shareholders a nonbinding resolution each yearregarding pay of top executives.
(Reporting by Scott Hillis, writing by Peter Henderson, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
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