Apple spent nearly $20bn on share buy back in Q2, more than any other U. S.firm

Apple Inc. spent nearly $20 billion buying back its own shares during the second quarter of 2023, the most of any company in the S&P 500, according to the latest numbers provided by Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. The consumer-technology giant, which is set to unveil a handful of new products on Tuesday, regularly tops the list of U.S. companies spending the most on buybacks, Silverblatt noted. The exact figure for Apple’s Q2 spending was just over $19.8 billion, down from the $20.01 billion Apple spent during Q1. The company’s shares rose 17.8% during the calendar-year quarter ended in June, according to FactSet data.

Apple dominates Silverblatt’s list of largest quarterly expenditures on buybacks, and its buybacks in Q2 were no exception. The amount spent by Apple during the quarter ranked No. 16 on Silverblatt’s list of 20 largest quarterly buyback spends on record. The largest amount Apple ever spent on buybacks during a single quarter was $27.6 billion during the fourth quarter of 2020. Over the past decade, Apple has spent $624.76 billion buying back its own shares. In addition, the company also returns money to investors via dividends. Its shares carry a dividend yield of 0.5%, per FactSet. Apple shares were down 1.3% at $177.03 in recent trade on Tuesday.

Silverblatt pointed out in his research that corporate spending on share buybacks fell by roughly 20% during the second quarter compared with the same period from 2022. The drop coincided with a recently adopted tax on corporate buybacks that Silverblatt said reduced operating earnings for S&P 500 firms by an aggregate $1.56 billion.

Source: MarketWatch