Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 1 · Companies
Which companies spend the most buying back their own stock?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Apple spent $90.7 billion buying back its own shares in its latest fiscal year, about 2 times as much as Alphabet ($45.7 billion), with Nvidia next ($40.1 billion). A buyback returns cash to shareholders and leaves fewer shares, so each remaining share owns more of the company. Together the 50 companies shown spent about $590 billion in their latest fiscal years, as reported in their cash flow statements. Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust's figure is shares its investors asked to sell back, not a buyback on the market.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR company financial data (XBRL) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Jun 28, 2026
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