Tim Cook-led Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has amplified its shareholder value for several years with a robust share repurchase program, so much so that only 13 firms worldwide have a market capitalization higher than the shares that AAPL has bought back.
What Happened: Data shared by the Chief Market Strategist at Creative Planning, Charlie Bilello, shows that Apple has bought back $704 billion in stock over the past decade.
That $704 billion figure exceeds the market capitalization of all but 13 companies globally and is greater than that of 488 companies in the S&P 500 index.
According to the chart shared by him, AAPL’s current outstanding shares amount to 14.84 billion units, while it has bought back 95.66 billion shares in 10 years, on a trailing basis.
Giants like Eli Lilly And Co. (NYSE:LLY), Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), Mastercard Inc. (NYSE:MA), and Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) have a market capitalization lower than that of Apple’s buybacks in the last 10 years.
However, experts have stated their frustration with Apple’s share repurchase strategy. CNBC’s ‘Mad Money’ host Jim Cramer has reiterated that the buybacks aren’t working, and they need to make an acquisition in the AI space with its cash flow.
The primary reason for promoting this acquisition of the AI-powered search engine, Perplexity AI, stems from the U.S. government’s antitrust ruling against Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) expected in this month. It could force Google to end default search deals with Apple’s Safari browser.
Why It Matters: Wedbush Securities’ Tech Bull, Daniel Ives, popularly known as Dan Ives, shares the same views as Cramer.
In July, Ives said that Apple's "treadmill approach" needs to end, and it needs to eye a big splashing partnership with either Perplexity or Anthropic.
According to him, "It's a matter of when and not if, in other words, Apple needs to make a move, and it's clear. Perplexity to me seems like a no-brainer, relative to how it would fit."
"The reason the stock can go up in the second half of the year is that I think Apple is going to make a move. I know they still haven't done an acquisition since Beats, being the biggest one, but now is the time for Cook and Cupertino to move away from the treadmill approach,” he added.
Ives reiterated Apple with an Outperform and a $270 price forecast on Wednesday after it announced a new $100 billion commitment to increase investments in the U.S., bringing the company’s total commitment up to $600 billion.
Price Action: Shares of Apple rose 3.18% on Thursday and 0.57% in after-hours. The stock was up 0.58% in premarket on Friday. It fell by 9.77% on a year-to-date basis, but it was 3.15% higher over the past year.
Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings shows that Apple had a weaker price trend over the long term but a stronger trend over the short and medium terms. Its momentum ranking was moderate, and its value ranking was poor at the 9.22th percentile. The details of other metrics are available here.
Price Action: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, ended mixed on Thursday. The SPY was down 0.084% at $632.25, while the QQQ advanced 0.34% to $569.24, according to Benzinga Pro data.
On Friday, the futures of the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Dow Jones indices were trading higher.
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