The biggest companies in the world are using their significant cash piles to pump up their stock prices into year-end.
About 53.8% of third quarter stock buyback activity was fueled by the top 20 companies, according to new data from S&P Dow Jones Indices senior index analyst Howard Silverblatt. The top 20 list (see below) was headlined by a who's who of the rich and powerful in corporate America: Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Oracle and Microsoft.
These five companies alone repurchased a startling $66.7 billion of their stock in the third quarter. Zoom out a bit, and the repurchase activity of these five companies is even more impressive: $211.6 billion in the aggregate.
"Apple continued to be the poster child for buybacks as it again spent the most of any issue, with the Q3 2021 expenditure ranked eighth highest in S&P history," said Silverblatt.
Stock buybacks remain strong.
