Apple(AAPL) is the world’s largest company in terms of market capitalization. As of Friday, the market cap stands at $2.91 Trillion with 15.33 billion shares outstanding. The market cap of many countries’ entire stock market is lower than Apple’s market cap.

From a performance perspective, Apple’s shares have been average to poor relatively so far this year. The shares are up by 2.28% YTD. However over the past 5 years it is up by an astonishing 325% excluding dividends. Though the returns are excellent, it can be argued that much of the rise in Apple’s stock price can be attributed to its buybacks. Apple is the king of buybacks. As Apple continued to buy back its own shares its stock price soared. The following chart chart shows the buybacks vs. total shares outstanding:

Click to enlarge

Source: @Charlie Bilello, Creative Planning

Via Thinking out loud, Syz Group

From the above article:

Apple has repurchased no less than $625 billion worth of its own shares over the past ten years, which is more than the market apitalization of 492 S&P 500 companies… The delisting of such a large number of shares partly explains the stock’s excellent performance over the past decade.

It remains to be see if Apple can continue to earn excellent returns for investors like in the past.

Related:

• The economics of Apple share repurchase by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution

Disclosure: No positions