You’d think after releasing the third-generation iPad, executives at Apple might get some rest over the weekend, but instead they issued a rare Sunday press release to announce a conference call to discuss its cash balance, which now amounts to nearly $100 billion.

Apple has announced plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program later this year, ahead of a conference call Monday morning with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer. The news will be welcomed by investors and analysts, who have frequently been critical of the company hoarding nearly $100 billion in cash.

“Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012,” the press release reads. “Additionally, the Company’s Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company’s fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.”

“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. You’ll see more of all of these in the future,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.”

“Combining dividends, share repurchases, and cash used to net-share-settle vesting RSUs, we anticipate utilizing approximately $45 billion of domestic cash in the first three years of our programs,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We are extremely confident in our future and see tremendous opportunities ahead.”

Further details of these plans are being discussed at a conference call on Monday morning, with Apple warning analysts they “will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash” -- which should squash any questions about how the new iPad performed.

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