Apple is in the midst of a program to return $45 billion in excess cash to shareholders but signaled Thursday that it is considering returning even more.

The company said in a statement to investors(Opens in a new window) that by next week it will have delivered to shareholders $10 billion of the $45 billion in excess cash Apple pledged last March to return in the form of a dividend and stock repurchase program.

“We find ourselves in the fortunate position of continuing to generate large amounts of cash, including $23 billion in cash flow from operations in the last quarter alone,” Apple said, adding that its board and management team were “in active discussions about returning additional cash to shareholders.”

When initiated, Apple’s current repayment program was expected to take three years, beginning with a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share that kicked off last July. The $10 billion share repurchase component of the plan started last September.

Apple also clarified an issue regarding the issuance of preferred stock in light of a lawsuit filed this week by hedge fund Greenlight Capital. Greenlight’s activist shareholder suit is an effort to require the iPhone maker to dole out more of its cash reserves in the form of “preferred stock with a perpetual 4 percent dividend,” according to Reuters(Opens in a new window).

Apple countered a claim by Greenlight holding that the proposed changes would preclude any new issuance of preferred stock, saying the hedge fund was off base. The changes were first listed in a January proxy statement(Opens in a new window) from Apple as “Proposal No. 2.”

That proposal strikes out language in the articles of incorporation that authorizes Apple’s board to issue common stock and up to 5 million shares of preferred stock, replacing it with an authorization to issue common stock only. But Apple said the change would only eliminate the current “blank check” given to its board to issue non-shareholder-approved preferred stock packages. Shareholders themselves would still “have the right to approve the issuance of preferred stock,” according to the company.

Greenlight founder David Einhorn, meanwhile, said in an interview this week that “Apple had a ‘Depression-era’ mentality that led it to hoard cash and invest only in the safest, lowest-yielding securities,” according to Reuters.

For more from Damon, follow him on Twitter @dpoeter(Opens in a new window).