Buying stock back is a means of returning equity to stockholders in two ways. Those who wish to sell may do so, and those who don't see their stock increase in ability to earn dividends by not being divided so many ways. Their share of the company goes up. If they cannot see that, they are stupid. Apple is smart in bringing equity back into the company. You don't have a clue. AAPL is being manipulated by the traders and they don't know how to treat Apple the company.
I see. You’re saying investors are stupid. How nice. Well, investment companies in this game have been in the business well before you were born. You’re showing blind faith in a company, but failing to see the signs. As for record-winning quarters, let’s take a look at some recent landmarks, shall we?:
HTC
Record High 4Q2010
Annual Low Low 4Q2011
Total Drop 51%
Result: Near bankruptcy
Nokia
Record High 1Q2000
Annual Low 1Q2001
Total Drop 72%
Result: Total loss of market share
HP
Record High 1Q2000
Annual Low 2Q2001
Total Drop 88%
Result: Total loss of market share
Micron
Record High Q42014
Annual Low Q42015
Total Drop 66%
Result: Total loss of market share
We could go on and on. All these companies were at the top of their segment at one brief point in time. A good article explaining why Apple will continue to slump and how it pertains to these patterns can be read here:
In addition, Samsung is pulling away from Apple yet again. If Apple can’t gain some market share in China, their problems are going to be a whole heck of a lot worse than investor confidence.