Here’s Exactly How Many Apple Shares You Need for $10K in Annual Dividends

Want Apple to cut you a $10,000 dividend check every year? Here’s the math behind building that income stream—no financial advisor required.

The Dividend Blueprint

Forget complex options strategies—owning shares outright remains the simplest path to passive income. Apple’s dividend yield dictates the exact number of shares needed to hit that five-figure goal.

Why Bother with Dividends?

While crypto traders chase 100x moonshots, dividend investing offers something radical: predictability. Apple’s payouts won’t make you overnight rich, but they won’t vanish in a liquidity crunch either—unlike some 'stablecoins' we’ve seen.

The Real Cost of Income

Building a dividend portfolio requires serious capital upfront. That $10k/year doesn’t come free—you’re buying cash flow through share ownership, one of the least sexy but most reliable moves in finance.

Tech’s Slow-Motion Payout

Apple won’t dazzle you with dividend growth—this isn’t a high-yield REIT. But in a sector known for hoarding cash, their consistent shareholder returns feel almost rebellious. A cynical take? It’s better than letting Tim Cook park another $200B overseas.

Image source: Getty Images.

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.