They’re just sitting on the cash.

The current members of the S&P 500 [.SPX 1409.15 18.12 (+1.3%) ] are sitting on about $800 billion in cash and cash equivalents, the most ever, according to data by Birinyi Associates, even as the unemployment rate has ticked back above 9 percent. Most of this cash and cash equivalents are likely yielding at or below the current 3.6 percent annual rate of inflation, giving it a negative real return.
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To be sure, relative to market value, cash levels have come down. Cash and cash equivalents as a percentage of the S&P 500’s market capitalization is 7.4 percent, down from a high of 9.2 percent at the start of the bull market, according to Birinyi.

However, this is still well above the 5 percent average during the last bull market, raising the ire of someone else besides the unemployed…shareholders.

“I understand why companies want the flexibility that a cash cushion provides, given the lesson of how dangerous it is to be at the mercy of financing markets, however, some companies have way, way too much cash,” said Karen Finerman, president of Metropolitan Capital Advisors and a ‘Fast Money’ trader. “We should do a call to arms to return cash to shareholders.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43499606