Here's How Many Shares of Apple Stock You'd Need for $10,000 in Yearly Dividends

Key Points

• Apple doubled its quarterly dividend in the past decade, now paying $1.04 per share each year.

• The business spends much more on share buybacks, which looks like management’s preferred way to return capital to investors.

• Apple's strong profits support higher dividends going forward.

• 10 stocks we like better than Apple ›

Thanks to the extreme success of products like the iPhone, MacBook, AirPods, and Watch, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is nothing short of a global powerhouse consumer brand. Add on popular services, like Music, Pay, and TV+, and this is a dominant tech enterprise.

Apple's success has led to incredible share-price gains over the long term. However, the business has been cutting checks to its investors on a quarterly basis as another source of return. Here's how many shares of this "Magnificent Seven" stock you'd need in order to receive $10,000 in yearly dividends.

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Return capital to shareholders

Apple currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share. This means that in order to make $10,000 in annual passive income, investors would need to own about 9,615 shares. Based on the stock price of $226.01 on Aug. 20, that's just under $2.2 million worth of shares.

The leadership team has a history of dividend raises. Just in the past decade, the quarterly per-share payout has doubled. It's probably safe for investors to assume that the dividend will grow in the years ahead.

While Apple pays a dividend, $3.9 billion in total in Q3 2025 (ended June 28), the company spends significantly more money on share repurchases. During the latest fiscal quarter, Apple bought back $21 billion worth of its own stock.

Apple is a cash machine

Apple is able to return massive amounts of capital to investors because of its strong earnings power. The net profit margin came in at 24.9% in Q3. And free cash flow totals tens of billions of dollars each quarter.

Apple sees the cash register ring nonstop. The company's insane profitability highlights just how successful it has become over the past couple of decades.

The stock's dividend yield of 0.46% might not turn any heads. But there's minimal risk that Apple will discontinue the payout for whatever reason.

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Neil Patel has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.