Apple announced today that it would pay a quarterly stock dividend from July and stage a three-year share buyback.

The two moves will reward investors by using up some of the company's cash hoard of nearly $100 billion and likely attract a new group of investors to buy the stock. But they are not likely to reduce the amount of cash in the company's coffers because Apple continues to generate so much money from its business.

The world's most valuable technology company will start paying its first dividends since 1995 - a regular quarterly payout of $2.65 a share - in July. The three-year stock buyback would begin in September 2013. The company said it would spend about $10 billion per year on the  dividend.

The $10 billion annual dividend programme, which Apple chief executive Tim Cook said will be reviewed periodically, ranks among the largest current US corporate cash payouts.

But he told analysts that "making great products" remained Apple's top priority, echoing the sentiments of his former boss Steve Jobs, who died in October after a long battle with cancer.

Jobs' former lieutenant has impressed Wall Street since taking the helm. He has made his mark by revealing Apple's production partners and initiating investigations into allegations of labour abuse in its supply chain, among other things.

Now, the man once hailed as an able deputy and supply chain guru is reaching out to Wall Street.

"We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure," Mr Cook said. "You'll see more of all of these in the future. Innovation is the most important objective at Apple and we will not lose sight of that."

Shares of Apple, which accounts for about 19 per cent of the Nasdaq 100, gained 2.4 per cent in New York to $599.40 today. Apple's shares have gained more than 50 per cent since Jobs' death and set a record above $600 last week as investors noted the assurance with which Mr Cook has taken the reins.

Mr Cook oversaw the rollout of the iPhone 4S last year and presided over what he said today was a "record weekend" of sales for the new, 4G-enabled iPad.

But many investors are still waiting to see an Apple TV or something similar: a gadget that will transform the industry the way the iPod and iPhone did. On a conference call, one of the first questions that cropped up regarded the company's product pipeline. Mr Cook declined to comment.

Apple expects the share buyback programme to run over three years, with the primary objective to offset the impact of employee stock options and equity grants. Its annual dividend yield will come in around 1.8 per cent.

Apple last paid a dividend in 1995, according to Thomson Reuters data. In 1996, the company posted a net loss of $816 million.