Out Fox The $treet

Apple finally announced the actual repatriation tax hit at $38 billion. The company plans to spend aggressively on capital expenditures and hiring in the U.S., squashing any likely big-scale acquisition. Investors should expect a standard 10% dividend hike each of the next two fiscal years in line with historical dividend hikes. Any shift from the standard dividend hike and capital return plans would actually signal a negative view of the future. Despite all of the recent debates regarding the repatriation tax including in the comments section of my   previous article   and forecasts of a ramped up capital return plan,   Apple   ( AAPL ) has so far not made any statements regarding changing existing plans. For numerous reasons, investors should want the tech giant to keep trucking along with the existing capital return plans and stick to a 'normal' dividend hike. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: Long AAPL. Please review...

Interesting news from our prime copper investment. Freeport-McMoRan Copper (FCX) announced a $1 supplemental dividend to be paid to shareholders of record on December 20. This is on top of the increase to the annual dividend from $1.20 to $2 announced back in October. All of a sudden this volatile copper and gold play is becoming a nice yielding stock. On top of the dividend news, FCX also announced a 2-1 stock split on February 1, 2011. In general this news shouldn't do that much for the stock as I don't think one time dividends do much for shareholders and a stock split should naturally have no impact. It is good though for companies to split when stock prices soar into triple digits. For small accounts like those on Covestor, it can be difficult to make a position in stocks like FCX or Apple (AAPL) because of the high stock price. Somebody wanting to invest $500 would either have to buy 4 shares for $440 or 5 for $550. Not ideal for a diversified portfolio. Ultimately t...