Apple CEO Tim Cook needs to learn a new trick for boosting the share price.
The iPhone maker is widely expected to increase the amount of cash it will return to investors in the form of stock buybacks and dividends on Wednesday, when it releases financial results for the quarter ended March.
Sanford Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi, for instance, predicts that Apple will add $30 billion to its $60 billion buyback program.
But shareholder payouts have been no panacea for the company or its sagging share price.
The stock is down 12 percent since March 2012, when Cook first broke with Apple’s tradition of hoarding money and announced plans to return $45 billion to shareholders over three years.
He increased the company’s capital reallocation program in April 2013, to a whopping $100 billion, including $60 billion in buybacks.
Still, the stock is down 5.3 percent this year as jittery investors wait for Apple to roll out new gadgets.
“It comes down to fundamentals,” said Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest Securities, who is skeptical that yet another round of throwing money at investors will help Apple’s stock in the long run.
Indeed, Wall Street is largely shrugging off the entire first half of the year amid expectations that Apple will disappoint financially, said Scott Kessler, an analyst with S&P Capital IQ.
“People seem to be focused on the second half of the year,” when the company is expected to refresh its products, Kessler said.
Apple forecast sales between $42 billion and $44 billion for its fiscal second-quarter results, roughly in line with the $43.6 billion it reported in the same period last year.