Share repurchases by S&P 500 companies totaled $131.6 billion in the second quarter, up 13.2% from a year earlier but down 8.7% from Q1 2015.
It was the sixth consecutive quarter in which more than 20% of companies in the S&P 500 index reduced their year-over-year diluted share count by at least 4%, S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a news release Thursday.
“Companies continue to use buybacks to add to their earnings-per-share at a time when EPS growth has become the center of attention for investors,” said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones.
The five largest buybacks during the quarter by company were Apple ($10 billion), Express Scripts ($5.5 billion), QUALCOMM ($5.4 billion), AbbVie ($5 billion) and Microsoft ($4.3 billion).
