“The stock buyback boom continued apace in the first-quarter earnings season that is now drawing to a close, with U.S. companies announcing $6.1 billion of buybacks a day, according to Trim Tabs Investment Research,” Ciara Linnane reports for MarketWatch. “That’s second only to the roughly $6.6 billion-a-day announced with fourth-quarter earnings, and is a strong indicator of exactly what companies are planning to do with savings generated by the tax revamp that was signed into law in December, said Trim Tabs.”
“Companies announced new stock buyback programs totaling $183.4 billion in the April to May earnings season, according to the research firm,” Linnane reports, “second only to the $191.4 billion announced in the January to February season.”
“Five companies accounted for 75% of total volume, led by Apple Inc. which announced a $100 billion program,” Linnane reports. “That was followed by Broadcom Inc. with a $12 billion program, Facebook Inc. with $9 billion, Qualcomm Inc. $8.8 billion and T-Mobile US Inc. at $7.5 billion.”
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MacDailyNews Take: To attempt to get a sense of the magnitude of Apple’s buyback plan, it’s comfortably more than double the buyback plans of Broadcom, Facebook, Qualcomm, and T-Mobile combined.
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