In the grand scheme of things this is simply money that's lost to the stock market... Aside from the short term artificial boosting of the share price to prevent downsides, what other reasons would prompt such a mammoth buyback?
Sometimes companies will buy back their stock strategically because they believe it is undervalued - that’s a long term strategy.
> Sometimes companies will buy back their stock strategically because they believe it is undervalued - that’s a long term strategy.
Depends on how the buyback is deployed (maybe if done in intervals) but I'll assume the announced buyback by Apple is to be done immediately to offset any drawbacks arising from their recent disappointing earnings call.
I'm dismissing that claim unless you can provide anything within the ballpark of reasonable evidence related to that claim.
Someone else provided a nice little breakdown [1] of how buybacks work in comparison with dividends.
I recommend you read that, and also actually read the article that you posted instead of continuing to argue a point that you are incorrect about.
Apple specifically has continued to return value to shareholders via stock repurchases over a long period of time. There's nothing artificial or abnormal about their stock buybacks, and you can do the research for yourself to compare their stock buyback programs with the company performance over time.
Best of luck in that endeavor and happy investing
Dividends can also be taxed differently. There's some nuance there beyond my expertise, but generally share buybacks are taxed more favorably (although there have been recent legislative efforts to change that)