7 S&P 500 Stocks With the Biggest Stock Buybacks

To close this holiday season, a final tip as we head into a brand new trading year tomorrow.  

DECEMBER 28, 2022 Invested Advice, rankings and stock market news for investors.

Good morning, investors. Markets drop, and Southwest hits a major snag. Highlights of today's newsletter include our market insights plus these new articles: 7 S&P 500 Stocks With the Biggest Stock Buybacks 7 Best REIT ETFs to Buy for 2023 How to Buy Treasury Bonds TODAY'S FEATURED STOCK STORY 7 S&P 500 Stocks With the Biggest Stock Buybacks The S&P 500 struggled in 2022, but there were still plenty of companies with the financial flexibility to scoop up their own shares during the dip. In fact, S&P 500 companies repurchased a total of $210.8 billion of their own shares in the third quarter, including 319 companies that reported at least $5 million in buybacks. By reducing their share counts in 2022, these buyback stocks are better positioned than peers to grow earnings per share in 2023 and beyond. Here are seven S&P 500 companies with the largest share buybacks in the third quarter: Apple Inc. (ticker: AAPL). Not only is Apple the most valuable public company, it has also been the champion of stock buybacks in recent years. Apple has set a goal of becoming net cash neutral, and buybacks are a big part of that plan. Apple repurchased $24.7 billion of shares in the third quarter, up from $20.4 billion a year ago and more than any other S&P 500 company. In fact, Apple has had a staggering $409.1 billion worth of buybacks in the past five years, about 2.6 times more than any other company. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL). Like most of the stocks on this list, Google and YouTube parent Alphabet has navigated the economic downturn relatively well. Alphabet's revenue growth slowed to just 6.1% in the third quarter, but the company reported $13.9 billion in net income and bought back $15.3 billion of stock during the same quarter. That buyback rate is up from the $12.6 billion in buybacks the company had during the third quarter of 2021. Alphabet has a long track record of big profits and aggressive buybacks, and has repurchased more than $150 billion of its own stock over the past five years. Click here to continue reading. Apple Inc. (ticker: AAPL) Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL) Meta Platforms Inc. (META) Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) Lowe's Cos. Inc. (LOW)