SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple CEO Tim Cook has a problem, a $98 billion problem.

Just 18 months ago, Apple’s $46 billion mountain of cash – while huge by most standards – attracted only muted complaints from investors, who did call for a dividend or share buyback, but were mostly happy with the meteoric rise in the stock price.

But with the growing cash balance now a much bigger overhang on the stock, widely considered to be undervalued, investors are clamoring more vocally for Cook to put the money to work.

No one could have foreseen just how quickly that warchest would grow. Indeed, some analysts estimated Apple’s cash holdings would increase to $65 billion at the end of 201l. That it has swelled nearly 50 percent above even those lofty projections is nothing short of awesome.

Apple now has about $104 in cash per share.

But to paraphrase rapper P. Diddy, with more money comes more problems. Apple’s runaway success presents Cook with his first real public test as chief executive officer – figuring out what to do with the money.

Apple’s cash balance is now a quarter of its $415 billion market capitalization and roughly equals California’s 2012-2013 state budget. And even though $64 billion of Apple’s cash is overseas – meaning it will have to pay a hefty tax to bring it into the United States – calls for a dividend on Wall Street grew louder after the company said on Tuesday it was in “active discussions” internally on what to do with the money.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc’s quarterly results blew past Wall Street’s expectations after U.S. consumers snapped up near-unprecedented numbers of iPhones and iPads, sending its shares up 8 percent into record territory.

The world’s most valuable technology corporation returned to form after a rare miss in the previous quarter, assuaging investors’ worries that its sheer size meant it was headed into a period of slower growth.

It sold 37.04 million iPhones – its flagship product – and 15.43 million iPad tablets, doubling from a year earlier and easily outpacing already heightened expectations for a strong holiday season. That helped swell its cash hoard to almost $100 billion – more than enough to plug December’s U.S. budget deficit.

“Going into 2012, I expect strength of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad should carry on into the year. Apple still has some tailwind, including opening up new retail stores and expanding its distribution channels,” said Hendi Susanto at Gabelli & Co.

“I would say Apple still has many unpenetrated international markets … Apple is still far from its saturation.”

The company founded by late Silicon Valley titan Steve Jobs – who died in October after a years-long battle with cancer – smashed estimates on all its results including gross margin, which came in at 44.7 percent during the quarter.

Revenue leapt 73 percent to $46.33 billion, handily beating the average Wall Street analyst estimate of $38.91 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.