There's a lot of talk about Apple starting to pay out dividends to stock holders. This could be huge for two reasons. The obvious being that you start making money now rather than waiting for capital growth. The second, less obvious, is that some investors hold the rule that you don't buy stocks that don't pay dividends. If Apple started to pay dividends it would open doors to even more investors. I would assume this would help their stock rise at an even faster rate.

I would still buy Apple stock if I had the cash on hand. I think a possible split would make the stock even more attractive as well. ~530/share makes it somewhat hard to make a meaningful investment.