Neil Cybart has done us a favor and extracted three years of share repurchase data from Apple’s 10-Qs.
From “10-Q Takeaways” ($) posted Monday to Above Avalon subscribers.
- 1Q17: $5B spent on buyback. Average price paid per repurchased share: $112.78.
- 2Q17: $4B. Average repurchase price per share: $128.74.
- 3Q17: $4.5B. Average repurchase price per share: $148.24.
- 4Q17: $4.5B. Average repurchase price per share: $154.78.
- 1Q18: $5.1B. Average repurchase price per share: $169.25.
- 2Q18: $23.5B. Average repurchase price per share: $171.48.
- 3Q18: $20.0B. Average repurchase price per share: $177.34.
- 4Q18: $19.4B. Average repurchase price per share: $210.32.
- 1Q19: $8.2B. Average repurchase price per share: $216.61.
- 2Q19: $12.0B. Average repurchase price per share: $167.47.
- 3Q19: $17.0B. Average repurchase price per share: $193.12.
- 4Q19: $17.9B. Average repurchase price per share: $208.79.
- 1Q20: $10.0B. Average repurchase price per share: $250.18.
The sharp increase in Apple’s buyback pace in 2Q18 was due to U.S. tax reform. The decline in buyback activity in 1Q19 was due to customer demand weakness in China. The decline in share buyback activity in 1Q20 was primarily due to Apple also utilizing a new accelerated share repurchase (ASR) program.
Here’s what that looks like in graphical form (chart is Cybart’s, annotation mine):
My take: This one’s for you, Joe Bland.
See also: Apple’s Form 10-Q
“4,375,480,000 shares of common stock were issued and outstanding as of January 17, 2020.“ (Page 2)
The 10-Q also says 30.396 M shares were purchased via ASR’s last quarter, out of a total (ASR plus open-market) of 70.366. Since the average price Apple paid in December was $268/share, if we assume the same figure for ASR’s, that’s about $8 B spent out of the $10 B approved in November 2019. (Page 36)
It makes zero sense to exclude ASRs from any historic graph of share buybacks, as when it comes to share count reduction they are basically identical to open market purchases.