Stocks Open Lower after Apple to Pay Dividend

Stocks opened mostly down on Monday, following last week’s advance to near four-year highs as Apple Inc. (APPL) said it would start paying a dividend and buying back stock. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 11.88 points to 13,220.74. The S&P 500 Index was up 2.34 points to 1,406.51. The Nasdaq Composite rose 8.79 points to 3,064.05.

Apple Inc, the world’s most valuable company, said Monday it will initiate a regular quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share in July and will buy back up to $10 billion of its stock starting in fiscal 2013. The share buyback program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of offsetting the impact of employee stock options and equity grants.

United Parcel Service will pay $6.85 billion for Dutch peer TNT Express in a deal that will make the world’s largest package delivery company the market leader in Europe. UPS will also get access to TNT’s stronger networks in the fast-growing Asian and Latin American markets, increasing the U.S. company’s global sales to over 45 billion euros and leaving it with 477,000 employees.

The private equity firm Vista Equity Partners agreed on Monday to buy the British software company Misys for £1.27, or $2 billion. Vista said it planned to combine the British company, which makes software to help financial institutions run their risk-management and other back-office operations, with Turaz, one of its existing companies that makes trade and risk-management software.

Oil traded little changed in New York , paring a gain of as much as 0.4 percent. Futures for April delivery were at $107.14 a barrel, up 8 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 3:15 p.m. Singapore time.