Apple Buys Its Own Shares In "Opportunistic" Bid

In an interview today, Apple's CEO Tim Cook announced the company repurchased $14 billion of its own shares, doing so over the course of the last couple weeks since reporting its financials. The move was "opportunistic", said Cook, who went on to state Apple had been surprised by the company's 8-percent drop in shares late last month.

This isn't the first time Apple has bought back its shares, however; the company has said in the past that it planned to repurchase $60 billion of its own shares, and that this latest "aggressive" move is only the most recent in its buying efforts. With the $14 billion, it has now bought in excess of $40 billion of its own shares in the last year.

Said Cook on the topic of its repurchasing efforts, "It means that we are betting on Apple. It means that we are really confident on what we are doing and what we plan to do. We're not just saying that. We're showing that with our actions." In the next month or two, he went on to say, Apple will issue an update on its buyback efforts.

The amount it repurchases in the future could potentially increase. Company investor Carl Icahn has asked other Apple shareholders to vote in favor of having the company buy $50 billion more in its own shares, in addition to the amount it has already purchased and plans to purchase. Apple's shareholder meeting is on February 28.

SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal