Samantha Sharf
Forbes Staff
Is there a stock list that Apple AAPL +1.56% doesn’t top? The iPhone maker is the largest S&P component. Retail investors trade it more than any other stock. The company pays more cash in dividends than any other. And today, S&P Dow Jones Indices again confirmed Apple also buys back more of its own shares.
Apple repurchased $5 billion worth of stock in the second quarter of 2014. According to an analysis released by S&P Tuesday, IBM IBM -0.77%, Exxon Mobil XOM -0.53%, Wells Fargo WFC -1.51% and Intel INTC -0.84% also bought big in the second quarter, but overall share repurchases were down 1.6% from the same period last year to $116.2 billion. Apple was not immune from this pattern. Its $5 billion is down sharply from $16 billion in the second quarter of 2013 (a record for any company at the time).
Nevertheless, the overall annual trend is positive. For the 12 months that ended in June, S&P 500 components increased their buyback expenditures 26.6% to $533 billion. The gains were driven in part by a strong first quarter. The $159.3 billion spent on stock buybacks in Q1 made it the second largest repurchase quarter on record.
Again, Apple ushered the trend. Tim Cook and Co. bought back $18 billion in Q1 (setting a new record). The company’s total so far this calendar year is therefore close to $23 billion. It is therefore likely Apple will beat the $26 billion it bought back in 2013.
As FORBES Markets Editor Steve Schaefer reported, the CEO was spurred on by billionaire Carl Icahn. The activist investor went on a “crusade” earlier this year insisting Apple buyback more stock to correct what Icahn called “‘a dramatic valuation disconnect’ between the company’s shares and the broader market.” In a February letter to Apple shareholders Icahn called the company “perhaps the most overcapitalized company in corporate history.” Icahn eventually backed down and a few months later Apple announced plans to return $130 billion to shareholders including up to $90 billion in buybacks.
