“At the end of the first quarter 2013 there were 946,035,000 fully diluted shares of Apple stock outstanding,” Horace Dediu writes for Asymco.
“At the end of the second quarter there were 924,265,000. The 21,770,000 shares that disappeared were purchased by Apple and retired,” Dediu writes. “Apple shares traded between $390 and $463 during the quarter so it’s hard to know exactly how much Apple paid for them, but at an average of $426.5 per share Apple would have spent $9.3 billion.”
Dediu writes, “If we add the 11 million yet-to-be-retired to the 21.7 million already retired and assume $16 billion was paid for them then the average price paid was $488.25… But what is even more interesting is that if we consider the $16 billion expenditure as an acquisition, then Apple has made what amounts to its biggest. It’s more than some familiar companies are worth.”
Read more in the full article here.