cash in the bank

Many technology outfits are sitting on huge piles of cash. Hoarding it—or using it to fund share buybacks.

 SanDisk, a maker of flash memory, and Nvidia, which produces video chips, have net cash (cash and securities less any debt) equal to more than 40% of their stock-market values.  Cisco Systems stands out because its $32 billion of net cash and securities equals 36% of its market capitalization.

 Apple, Microsoft, and Qualcomm have more than 20% of their market values in cash and securities, while Google's percentage is down to a still-ample 16%, following its $12.5 billion cash purchase of Motorola Mobility last week. Apple leads the world with a cash balance of $110 billion.

                            Net     Mkt     Net    
    Recent         2012E     Cash*     Val     Cash/     Div
Company          Price     EPS     P/E     (bil)     (bil)     Mkt Val     Yld
Cash-Rich                            
SanDisk / SNDK    $32.92    $2.10    15.7    $3.8     $8.0    47.5%    None
Nvidia / NVDA    12.44    0.72    17.3    3.1    7.7    40.3    None
Dell / DELL    12.49    1.96    6.4    8.2    22.0    37.3    None
NetApp/ NTAP 1     28.17    2.23    12.6    3.7    10.2    36.3    NoneYahoo! / YHOO 2     15.38    0.95    16.2    6.7    18.7    35.8    None
Juniper Networks / JNPR     17.23    0.85    20.3    3.2    9.1    35.2    None
Xilinx / XLNX 3     32.07    2.00    16.0    2.2    8.4    26.2    2.7%
Electronic Arts/ EA 2     14.69    1.12    13.1    1.3    5.0    26.0    None
Corning / GLW    12.77    1.35    9.5    3.7    19.4    19.1    2.3
Super Cash-Rich                            
Cisco Systems / CSCO 4     $16.69    $1.83    9.1    $32.1    $89.4    35.9%    1.9%
Microsoft / MSFT 5     29.11    2.72    10.7    56.7    244.5    23.2    2.7
Qualcomm / QCOM 6     58.14    3.76    15.5    26.6    99.7    26.7    1.7
Apple / AAPL 6     570.56    46.97    12.1    110.2    533.5    20.7    None
Google / GOOG 7     609.46    43.35    14.1    31.4    199.4    15.7    None