A Comprehensive View of Apple’s Share Buyback Strategy and Its Influence on the Company’s Stock

March 30, 2024

Apple (AAPL) has consistently implemented a share buyback strategy over the past decade The strategy has played a critical role in enhancing the company’s stock, drawing both praise and scrutiny from the financial world.

A share buyback, or a share repurchase, is a financial strategy where a company purchases its own shares from the marketplace. The overall aim of this move to reduce the total number of outstanding shares on the market. By employing this strategy, Apple has been able to leverage its substantial cash reserves to boost its own stock value.

Apple’s implementation of this strategy has had a significant effect on its earnings per share (EPS). This is because the metrices of the EPS are calculated by dividing the net income by the number of outstanding shares. Thus, with fewer shares in play, the EPS is increased. Such improvement in the EPS can make the stock more attractive to investors, leading to stock price appreciation.

Apple’s reliance on this stock buyback program has also led to its success in achieving a $3 trillion market cap, as reported by CNBC in 2022. This aligns with the prediction by Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi that the company would likely continue to repurchase between 3% and 4% of outstanding shares annually.

However there is a ongoing debate about Apple’s extensive dependency on this strategy. Certain investors have expressed concern about the reduction of cash that could have been invested to accelerate organic growth. Following is how much apple has been buying back over the years.

DateValue
December 31, 202320.14B
September 30, 202321.00B
June 30, 202317.48B
March 31, 202319.59B
December 31, 202219.48B
September 30, 202224.43B
June 30, 202221.86B
March 31, 202222.63B
December 31, 202120.48B
September 30, 202119.75B
June 30, 202122.90B
March 31, 202118.55B
December 31, 202024.78B
September 30, 202017.62B
June 30, 202015.89B
March 31, 202018.15B
December 31, 201920.70B
September 30, 201917.05B
June 30, 201916.95B
March 31, 201923.31B
December 31, 20188.796B
September 30, 201818.76B
June 30, 201820.78B
March 31, 201822.43B
December 31, 201710.10B
DateValue
September 30, 20177.514B
June 30, 20177.092B
March 31, 20176.888B
December 31, 201610.85B
September 30, 20165.778B
June 30, 201610.17B
March 31, 20166.421B
December 31, 20156.862B
September 30, 201513.03B
June 30, 20159.985B
March 31, 20156.741B
December 31, 20144.95B
September 30, 201416.70B
June 30, 20144.906B
March 31, 201417.76B
December 31, 20134.895B
September 30, 20134.715B
June 30, 201315.94B
March 31, 2013-199.00M
December 31, 20121.874B
September 30, 2012-232.00M
June 30, 2012-56.00M
March 31, 2012-286.00M
December 31, 2011-91.00M
September 30, 2011-254.00M