Apple (AAPL) CFO Kevan Parekh announces end of net cash neutral capital allocation policy

Apple's stock had an immediate and strong reaction to the announcement.

Apple’s Q2 2026 earnings call brought the news that the company will cease its net cash neutral capital return policy. It’s a move that could signify Apple’s plan to increase its stock buybacks and dividends in the future, and the company’s stock took a leap as a result.

Apple CFO Kevan Parekh was speaking during the company’s latest earnings call when the topic came up. “We remain very committed to returning excess cash to shareholders,” he said, before going on to state that $850 billion of the trillion dollars that Apple has returned to shareholders came from stock repurchases. Parekh also implied that Apple is open to spending more on R&D (research and development) as well as infrastructure spend. This could mirror similar moves being made by Google and Meta, which both announced increases to their capital expenditures yesterday.

The words from Parekh were well received by investors listening to the call. Apple stock jumped in after-hours trading, reaching as high as $283.01. Shares dropped as low as $268.60 after the initial publishing of the earnings report.

For more context on Apple’s quarter, read our write-up of their latest earnings release. It’s been a busy week for tech news, and Shacknews has everything you need to know.

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