Google’s Investors Want A Dividend, Too

A month ago Apple made big news when it announced that it would begin paying its shareholders a dividend for the first time. The program, scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of Apple’s fiscal year (which begins in July), will pay Apple’s shareholders $2.65 per share.

Now it looks like Google’s shareholders are beginning to want a little payback of their own. Bloomberg is reporting this morning that Google’s investors are asking for their own cut of Google’s $44.6 billion cash stockpile. Bloomberg notes that Google is currently the only company whose market cap is above $125 billion that does not currently pay shareholders.

A dividend might not be quite as wise for Google as it is for Apple, though, considering that Google is in the midst of a $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility. Also, Google’s stock (which is currently trading at $644) has had somewhat of a bumpy ride of late. It has been fluctuating considerably in the last year, and has tumbled a bit from its year-to-date high of $657 in late March.