Apple, $145 billion. Microsoft, $74 billion. Google, $50 billion. Cisco Systems, $47 billion. At recent tally, these were the top four U.S. companies in terms of their holdings of cash and short-term investments. Total liquid assets of domestic nonfinancial companies at the end of 2012: $1.8 trillion.

Such eye-popping sums have aroused public indignation. Investors are insisting that companies stop hoarding their cash and start paying it out. Politicians are demanding that they start spending it, in order to create jobs and boost the economy.

But companies are already returning cash to shareholders in record amounts. S&P 500 firms paid $282 billion in dividends in 2012 and are on track to disburse $311 billion in 2013. Buybacks are on the rise, too, as is merger and acquisition activity.

Whether or not individual companies are hoarding cash is debatable. But studies show that among all publicly traded companies, the average ratio of cash to assets has been steadily rising for the last 30 years. Researchers have found good reasons for this rise, but hoarding by entrenched managers isn't one of them (more on this below).

Since the financial crisis, many companies have been keeping more cash on hand. "Most of us large corporates have fundamentally changed the way we approach liquidity," R. Bruce McDonald, CFO of Johnson Controls, told CFO earlier this year (see "Situation under Control," January/February). "We want to have a lot more of it, a lot more comfort from a lot more secure sources."

At some point, determining whether a company has too much cash is a subjective judgment, depending on the eye of the beholder. Recently, CFO asked four expert beholders how they see corporate cash today, and what might entice companies to start using more of it. Here's what they said.

Read more in the full article - recommended, here.