Apple isn’t really sitting on $216 billion in cash

The more than $215 billion Apple has in reserve is a constant fascination of bloggers and market watchers, who imagine the company going on an acquisition spree or buying back (even more) company stock.

The problem with Apple’s “cash pile” is that most of it is not actually “cash” nor “on hand,” and it doesn’t take into account Apple’s debt. Apple has about $16.7 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet. The majority of the assets included in its reserve is stashed in long-term marketable securities, meaning Apple plans to let those funds — roughly $177.7 billion — accrue interest for more than a year.
More importantly, almost all of Apple’s cash and securities are stashed overseas, proceeds from sales outside the United States that Apple will not bring back because it would then have to pay U.S. taxes.

While cash and securities pile up overseas, Apple is piling up debt in the United States. The company currently sits on about $53.2 billion in long-term debt obligations as well as $32.2 billion in “non-current liabilities,” after executing a series of bond sales including the largest in history for a nonfinancial U.S. business.

And those debts don’t include the cash Apple has promised its shareholders, which are mostly financed by its bond sales. After spending more than $8.8 billion on stock repurchases and dividends in the fourth quarter of 2015, Apple is a little more than three-quarters of the way through a $200 billion capital-return program that it believes will set a corporate record for stock buybacks. There is another $47 billion promised to shareholders.

marketwatch.com