Apple buys back $14 billion of its own shares within two weeks of Q1 earnings results

[Justin Kahn]

Apple recently bought back around $14 billion worth of its own shares over the past two weeks, according to CEO Tim Cook in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Cook said that the market didn't respond well to the earnings announcement and the company was "surprised" to see its stock fall 8% after positive Q1 earnings results.

Cook revealed that the move was part of a greater strategy already put in place. He said as part of a plan to buy back $60 million of its own shares, Apple has purchased more than $40 million worth over the past 12 months.

The CEO said that further details on Apple's buyback plan will be available later this year in March or April. “It means that we are betting on Apple. It means that we are really confident on what we are doing and what we plan to do,” said Cook to WSJ. “We’re not just saying that. We’re showing that with our actions.”

Major investor Carl Icahn has been pressuring Apple to move on a buy back plan for a while now, just last month he upped his holdings buy another $1 billion for a total of $3.6 billion hoping to motivate Apple's buy back program along.

Cook went on to say that Apple is focused on "the long-term interest of the shareholders, not for the short-term shareholder, not for the day trader." When asked about possible acquisitions, Cook was adamant in saying that Apple has "looked at big companies" and that it has "no problem spending ten figures for the right company, for the right fit that’s in the best interest of Apple in the long-term.” We also learned that Apple has picked up 21 companies over the last 15 months based on figures right from Cook, but none that we know of in the ten figure range.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/55598-apple-buys-back-14-billion-of-its-own-shares-within-two-weeks-of-q1-earnings-results.html

 

[VitalyT]

Apple closed on a really good end of the year. The latest Macbook Pro and then Mac Pro are great products, and were well received. I believe iPhone 6 will be a significant milestone for Apple when they are finally all-in on 64-bit architecture. This should be another good year for Apple.

 

[NTAPRO]

Optimism on an apple article? I've seen everything now

 

[Guest]

Twitter, Apple, Bitcoin, Facebook.

These are the names we will soon forget.

Microsoft, the sleeping giant AWAKENS! mwhahahahah! Back to reality, kiddies.

 

[theBest11778]

Twitter, Apple, Bitcoin, Facebook.

These are the names we will soon forget.

Microsoft, the sleeping giant AWAKENS! mwhahahahah! Back to reality, kiddies.

I agree I see a serious lack of progress by the companies/ideas mentioned. Twitter has it's cult following, kind of like Facebook, but recently it seems people actually want their privacy back, so I don't see them going away, just becoming irrelevant to most people. Bitcoin was/is a stupid idea, now everyone's realizing it. Apple however is in the do or die position. They won't survive on making good revisions of well received products. They need something new. The next iPad. Something no one else has. That's what's made them successful over the past decade, but I don't see anything in the pipe from them. Making good laptops won't keep you in business anymore (Sony just sold their Vaio division,) HP wishes it did something other than PCs (they've been trying to get rid of that division for a few years now.) Apple has a niche market, but the masses are getting tired of the Apple train. Either they have a Mac, like it, and feel no need to upgrade, or just don't want one to begin with. Similar trends are happening with the iPads. Why buy a new one, when the iPad 2 will do anything an average person wants? So they don't buy another.

I feel the iPhone will still sell well as many people have invested in the Apple ecosystem (apps,) and don't want to just throw that away, but as far as being a technology leader... I don't see anything on the horizon. Google is poised to take everyone over as the worlds leading Tech company by a huge margin.

 

[Mbloof]

Ahh... that basically sums up ALL technology today and its buyers today. I already own a: desktop, laptop, MP3 player, tablet, GPS, smart phone - they all work - I'm happy with them - why exactly do I need to replace them again?

Its all about market saturation and all these technology companies REAL worse threat is their prior released and sold products. Would I replace any of the above with the same brand if they FAILED? Maybe. Then again I might shop around to see what the other guys have to offer.

Just because companies keep "inventing" or "reinventing" the same product(s) over and over does not equate to people running out and purchasing every new revision. In families (and extended families) some might get the "hand me downs" of others upgrades. Some might SELL what they have to partially sponsor a new device. (which equates to 2 people wanting your product and your only making ONE sell)

I'm surprised that the Print media never got pissed off about this one like the publishers of Computer games do. (IP sold from source ONCE and then resold or traded dozens of times to others equating into no extra sells for the owner of the IP)

 

[p51d007]

Markets, except for India & China, are pretty well saturated. With the stagnant economy in the USA, people aren't trading in 6-12 month old devices, people are not buying "new" stuff, holding onto the older devices that still work.