Thanks to the extreme success of products like the iPhone, MacBook, AirPods, and Watch, Apple (AAPL 1.21%) 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.
