Apple buybacks pay most ever as S&P 500 CEOs spend $211 billion - Business - The Boston Globe

Perhaps Apple could become a hedge fund, if the whole product thing doesn't work out...

"Apple’s $18 billion repurchase in the first quarter and the $16 billion it spent between April and June of 2013 are the two biggest buybacks by any company in data compiled by S&P starting in 1998. They came as the stock advanced as much as 77 percent over 15 months after falling to a 16-month low in April 2013.

The return followed the weakest period for Apple shares in the last decade. After vaulting almost 900 percent from the end of 2005 through September 2012 and becoming the world’s largest company by market value, Apple plunged 44 percent in seven months amid concern about new products and competition.

‘‘Their timing was impeccable,’’ Todd Lowenstein, who helps manage $16 billion at Highmark Capital Management in Los Angeles, said in a July 31 phone interview. ‘‘They went in big, and it said to the market that they had confidence in their business plan and thought their stock was grossly undervalued. That’s worked out well for them.’’"

Apple buybacks pay most ever as S&P 500 CEOs spend $211 billion - Business - The Boston Globe