AAPL stock

AAPL quickly climbed 6 percent in pre-market trading following Apple’s announcement that it had sold a record 9M iphones in the first weekend, beating most analyst expectations. The last time it hit $500 was six weeks ago, when Carl Icahn announced his increased stake in the company, believed to be in excess of $1.5B.

Analyst forecasts for sales of the new iPhones had ranged wildly from 5M to 10M, but 9M was at the high end of what most were expecting and substantially above the more pessimistic forecasts. Four major financial firms had seemed unimpressed by the announcement on 10th September, downgrading the stock.

Apple’s SEC filing advised investors that it expects to hit the high-end of its earlier Q4 guidance … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Photo: huffpost.com

Fortune reports that Apple’s stock repurchase scheme – buying back some of its own shares – is proceeding more than three times faster than scheduled.

The company was scheduled to repurchase 10 million shares in Q3. It bought 36 million […] By my calculation, the company spent $16 billion last quarter ($4 billion in cash, $12 billion through the so-called accelerated share repurchase program) to purchase 36 million of its own shares at an average price of just over $444.

If Fortune‘s numbers are correct, then Apple has already spent almost all of the $17B it borrowed back in April. Accelerating the planned repurchase program makes sense if you expect the stock to cost less now than it will later. In other words, if you’re expecting the stock price to climb … 
Expand
Expanding
Close