08-20-2013, 12:10 AM
Apple used two methods last quarter to buy back their stock:
accelerated share repurchase (ASR) was most of it, and they did this with 2 investment banks, basically buying back $12 billion of shares that the banks owned.
the rest, around $4 billion, was direct open market repurchase
Apple used debt to finance this entire stock repurchase, but they've authorized up to $60 billion in buy backs so from here on they'll likely use their own cash
the point of a buy back is to do dollar cost averaging so that they buy back their own stock at the most discounted price available, which means they take more off the market for less money
accelerated share repurchase (ASR) was most of it, and they did this with 2 investment banks, basically buying back $12 billion of shares that the banks owned.
the rest, around $4 billion, was direct open market repurchase
Apple used debt to finance this entire stock repurchase, but they've authorized up to $60 billion in buy backs so from here on they'll likely use their own cash
the point of a buy back is to do dollar cost averaging so that they buy back their own stock at the most discounted price available, which means they take more off the market for less money