https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-beats-q2-estimates-as-iphone-sales-decline-10-091232309.html Apple (AAPL) reported second quarter results Thursday that showed sales fell less than feared during the quarter while profits topped estimates, sending shares up as much as 4% in extended trading. ...... "The company also announced it was authorizing an additional $110 billion for share repurchases and increased its dividend to $0.25 per share."
%% THIS may not apply to AAPL. But the old joke question with a grain of truth, when ,oh when is AMZN going to turn around?? Answer, right after you sell[exit] it LOL. 2] If only it was that simple, sell everything + then get long.
If you read between lines it means they have no innovation that is an additional revenue driver/profit driver. They are now entering the "battlefield mode" with many other generic mobile phone producers. The other day I read they may be planning a "poor man´s IPhone". Well, how desperate are they in their product development division?
Returning capital because what else would they do with it? They have 80bn in cash and generated 100bn in free cash flow last year. That’s 66percent of IBMs market cap. There was a guy on here who said that dividends and buybacks were immoral. He also said getting a mortgage was immoral.
This started with Palmisano at IBM in the mid aughts. Buyback to boost EPS even if it meant borrowing to do so. Ofc rates were silly at the time.
Imagine what would happen to these companies if the Progressives won an election and went back to the 1970s rules of no buybacks. Tim Apple would be in a panic.
If they have "something" in the works (killed Apple Car just a month ago so who knows?) coming to the marketplace soon and buying time then ok. Otherwise its the old financial engineering sleight of hand to keep bonuses & options coming. As well as of course satisfying W.S. insatiable need for ever growing quarterly numbers.