Apple has repurchased $78 billion worth of its stock in the past year

Apple is the stock buyback king of tech giants.

The company spent a total of $621 billion buying its own shares between 2013 and 2023. For reference, Google parent Alphabet spent about one third of that figure on its stock over the same period. Over the last fiscal year, Apple doled out $78 billion to buy 456 shares of its stock, reducing its number of outstanding shares by about 2%.

“Given what’s feasible, Apple’s buyback program is actually quite impressive,” wrote James Brumley of the stock investing and stock market research site Motley Fool.

Buyback programs reduce the number of a company’s shares in circulation, which then raises an investor’s stake and their return on future dividends. While investors’ views on share buyback programs are mixed — some companies use them to artificially boost their stock price — stock repurchases executed by companies with competent leadership are usually a good thing. Bankrate’s James Royal writes that “properly executed stock repurchases are one of the best and lowest-risk ways to create value for shareholders.”

Google parent Alphabet demonstrated the potential value of such programs to the world last week. Google shares shot up 14% on news that its board approved $70 billion in stock buybacks as well as its first-ever dividend, not to mention its strong first-quarter earnings report.