Apple spent $713.2 billion buying back its own shares over its fiscal 2016 to 2025 accounting years. A buyback is when a company buys shares from shareholders who choose to sell, so fewer shares remain. Apple's share count fell 33.8%.
The same cash bought fewer shares each year. Apple paid an average of $26 a share in fiscal 2016 and $222 in fiscal 2025.
What is a share buyback? A share buyback is when a company uses its own cash to buy its shares from shareholders who choose to sell. The shares leave the count, so each share that remains is a larger slice of the company.
Apple's shares outstanding fell 33.8% in ten fiscal years, from 22.3 billion to 14.8 billion.
Earnings per share, which is profit divided by the number of shares, rose 259%, while net income rose 145%.
Apple paid an average of $26 a share in fiscal 2016 and $222 in fiscal 2025. A retired share is a repurchased share that leaves the count. The higher the price, the fewer shares each dollar retires.
A company's shares outstanding are the shares its investors hold. A share buyback cuts that number. The company pays cash to shareholders who choose to sell. The shares it buys leave the count.
Each share that remains is a larger slice of the company, as our post on what a stock is explains. The buyback spreads the same profit across fewer shares.
A buyback differs from a dividend, which pays cash to every shareholder. A buyback pays cash only to the shareholders who sell.
In May 2025 Apple announced a new repurchase programme of up to $100 billion. The programmes do not oblige Apple to buy any minimum number of shares.
How much has Apple spent on buybacks?
Apple's cash flow statement shows $713.2 billion paid for repurchases in fiscal 2016 to 2025. Spending rose from $29.7 billion in fiscal 2016 to $72.7 billion in fiscal 2018. It then stayed between $66.9 billion and $94.9 billion in every year from fiscal 2018 to 2025.
Source: Apple Form 10-K filings, fiscal 2016 to 2025
The chart shows spending jumping in fiscal 2018, then staying between $66.9 billion and $94.9 billion, with the peak in fiscal 2024.
Free cash flow is the cash a business generates from operations after paying for the property, plant and equipment it needs, as our post on free cash flow explains.
Apple's free cash flow over the ten years was $813.2 billion. Repurchases took 87.7% of it, while dividends took 17.4%. Together they came to 105.1%.
Apple also gives employees shares as pay. It withholds some of those shares to cover the employees' tax bills, then pays that tax in cash. That cash came to $42.0 billion over the ten years. The $713.2 billion excludes it.
Fiscal year | Repurchases ($ billion) | Dividends ($ billion) | Free cash flow ($ billion) | Shares at year-end (billion) | Change in shares | Diluted EPS ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | 29.7 | 12.2 | 53.5 | 21.3 | −4.3% | 2.08 |
2017 | 32.9 | 12.8 | 51.8 | 20.5 | −3.9% | 2.30 |
2018 | 72.7 | 13.7 | 64.1 | 19.0 | −7.2% | 2.98 |
2019 | 66.9 | 14.1 | 58.9 | 17.8 | −6.6% | 2.97 |
2020 | 72.4 | 14.1 | 73.4 | 17.0 | −4.5% | 3.28 |
2021 | 86.0 | 14.5 | 93.0 | 16.4 | −3.2% | 5.61 |
2022 | 89.4 | 14.8 | 111.4 | 15.9 | −2.9% | 6.11 |
2023 | 77.5 | 15.0 | 99.6 | 15.6 | −2.5% | 6.13 |
2024 | 94.9 | 15.2 | 108.8 | 15.1 | −2.8% | 6.08 |
2025 | 90.7 | 15.4 | 98.8 | 14.8 | −2.3% | 7.46 |
Ten years | 713.2 | 141.8 | 813.2 | −33.8% |
GAAP figures. Cash paid in each fiscal year. Free cash flow is operating cash flow less payments for property, plant and equipment. Shares and EPS are adjusted for the 2020 stock split. The ten-year change in shares runs from the end of fiscal 2015. Source: Apple Form 10-K filings
The table sets each fiscal year side by side. Free cash flow in it is operating cash flow less payments for property, plant and equipment.
Apple's shares outstanding fell from 22.3 billion at the end of fiscal 2015 to 14.8 billion at the end of fiscal 2025. That is 7.5 billion fewer shares, a fall of 33.8%.
Source: Apple Form 10-K filings, fiscal 2015 to 2025
The count fell in every year, by 4.3% in fiscal 2016 and by 2.3% in fiscal 2025.
A share held through the whole period owns a slice of Apple that is 51.1% larger.
The fall is smaller than the shares bought, because Apple also issues new shares to employees. From fiscal 2016 to 2025 it repurchased 8.62 billion shares and issued 1.08 billion, after withholding shares for taxes. Issuance gave back 12.5% of the shares the buybacks removed.
Earnings per share (EPS) is net income divided by the number of shares. Diluted EPS uses the average share count over the year, including the extra shares that employee awards could create. Our post on how to read an income statement shows where it sits.
Apple's net income rose from $45.7 billion in fiscal 2016 to $112.0 billion in fiscal 2025, a rise of 145%. Diluted EPS rose from $2.08 to $7.46, a rise of 259%. The diluted share count fell 31.8% over the same years.
Source: Apple Form 10-K filings, fiscal 2016 and 2025
The chart shows fiscal 2016 EPS of $2.08, then fiscal 2025 EPS at the fiscal 2016 share count ($5.09), then the actual fiscal 2025 EPS ($7.46). The middle bar divides fiscal 2025 net income by the fiscal 2016 diluted share count. It spreads fiscal 2025 net income over the fiscal 2016 share count.
The actual $7.46 is 46.5% higher. The smaller share count added $2.37.
This is arithmetic. It does not forecast anything.
What price did Apple pay for its shares?
The price paid decides how many shares each dollar retires. The average rose from $26 in fiscal 2016 to $45 in fiscal 2018 and $222 in fiscal 2025. That is 8.6 times the fiscal 2016 price.
Source: Apple Form 10-K filings, fiscal 2016 to 2025
The average price rose from each fiscal year to the next.
Spending rose 3.1 times from fiscal 2016 to 2025, while the price rose 8.6 times. Apple retired 1.12 billion shares in fiscal 2016 and 0.40 billion in fiscal 2025.
Dividing the average price by that year's diluted EPS gives the P/E ratio at the price paid. Apple paid 12.5 times EPS in fiscal 2016 and 29.8 times in fiscal 2025.
How do we measure Apple's buybacks?
Every business figure comes from Apple's annual reports, called Form 10-K, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
We use the ten fiscal years from 2016 to 2025, the latest full year on file. Apple's fiscal year ends on the last Saturday of September, so fiscal 2025 ran from 29 September 2024 to 27 September 2025. All figures follow US accounting rules (GAAP).
Two measures of spending appear.
The cash paid is the cash flow statement line "Repurchases of common stock", which was $29.7 billion in fiscal 2016 and $90.7 billion in fiscal 2025.
The value of shares bought comes from the notes to the accounts, which report $29.0 billion in fiscal 2016 and $89.3 billion in fiscal 2025. The two figures differ. The statement of shareholders' equity shows a third figure, $90.1 billion, for common stock repurchased. The average price divides the notes figure by the shares bought in the notes.
Apple split its stock four for one on 28 August 2020. We restate the earlier years to today's basis, multiplying their share counts by four and dividing their per-share figures by four.
Our post on what a stock is counts diluted shares averaged over the year, which were 15.0 billion in fiscal 2025. This post counts shares outstanding at the year-end, which were 14.8 billion.
The numbers show that buybacks cut Apple's share count and lifted EPS 46.5% above what net income growth alone would give. They also show that each dollar bought fewer shares over time, because the price rose 8.6 times.
Issuance to employees gave back 12.5% of the shares retired. Buybacks and dividends together took 105.1% of free cash flow. The programmes set no minimum, so the spending can stop.
The filings show the price Apple paid. They do not show whether that price was above or below the value of the shares. If Apple paid more than a share was worth, the shareholders who sold gained at the expense of those who stayed. If it paid less, the reverse holds.
Our guide to the cash flow statement shows where buyback cash appears and how to read it.
Apple's share count fell 33.8% in ten fiscal years, while the price it paid rose 8.6 times. Each dollar retired fewer shares as the price climbed.
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What is the difference between a share buyback and a dividend?
A dividend pays cash to every shareholder, while a buyback pays cash only to the shareholders who sell. A buyback also cuts the number of shares outstanding. Apple paid $15.4 billion in dividends and $90.7 billion in cash for repurchases in fiscal 2025. Our post on what a dividend is covers the dividend side.
How much did Apple spend on stock buybacks in 2025?
Apple paid $90.7 billion in cash for repurchases in fiscal 2025, which ended on 27 September 2025. The notes to its accounts value the 402 million shares bought at $89.3 billion, a different measure. In the nine months to 27 June 2026 it repurchased 215 million shares for $61.8 billion.
Buybacks appear in three places. The cash flow statement lists the cash paid under financing activities, on the line "Repurchases of common stock". The statement of shareholders' equity deducts the shares and the dollars. The income statement shows the effect only through a lower share count in earnings per share.
Apple repurchased 8.62 billion shares from fiscal 2016 to 2025, after adjusting for its 2020 four for one stock split. It bought 1.12 billion in fiscal 2016 and 402 million in fiscal 2025. It issued 1.08 billion new shares to employees over the same years, so the count fell by less than the shares bought.
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended for educational purposes only. Any information or analysis in this note does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice, nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice.
