Apple and Alphabet Led the S&P 500 in Stock Buybacks in Second Quarter -- Barrons.com

Andrew Bary

Apple, Alphabet and Meta Platforms led the S&P 500 index in buybacks during the second quarter. Overall repurchases by companies in the benchmark index totaled $235.9 billion, up 8% from the same period a year ago but down 0.4% from the first quarter.

Apple once again led the index with $28.8 billion of buybacks, a quarterly record for the company and the S&P 500 index, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The data lags behind by a quarter.

Apple spent $96.3 billion on buybacks in the 12 months ending in June, $440 billion over the past five years, and $687 billion over the last 10 years in the largest repurchase program of any U.S. company. Apple bought back about 35% of its stock over that 10-year period net of issuance.

Alphabet was second at $15.7 billion in the second quarter, followed by Meta Platforms at $9.5 billion, Nvidia at $8.8 billion, and Wells Fargo at $6 billion.

Total buybacks in the S&P 500 totaled $877.5 billion over the 12-month period ended in June, up 8% from the prior 12-month period.

Companies continue to favor buybacks over dividends. S&P 500 dividends were up 7% year over year to $153.4 billion in the second quarter, bringing the 12-month total to a record $603 billion.

While buybacks rose in dollar terms, they represent a smaller percentage of the S&P 500 index overall as stocks have surged in the past two years. The so-called buyback yield -- or buybacks divided by the S&P 500's market value -- was 1.9% in the 12 months ending in the second quarter, down from 2.9% in 2022.

The S&P 500 dividend yield was 1.3% over the 12-month period. That brought the index's total yield -- or buyback yield plus dividend yield -- to 3.2%, down from 3.5% in 2023 and 6% in 2018.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com

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December 13, 2024 15:24 ET (20:24 GMT)

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