As concern about a weakening economy increase, most S&P 500 ($SPX) (SPY) companies are cutting their spending on their stock buyback programs. However, mega-cap technology stocks are bucking that trend and are maintaining most of their buybacks. The strong cash flows of the mega-cap tech companies are allowing them to keep spending on stock buybacks, a major bullish factor for their stock prices.
The four biggest companies to spend on stock buybacks last quarter, Alphabet (GOOGL), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta Platforms (META), bought about $50 billion of their own shares, according to Bloomberg data. While that’s down -10% from the same period last year, it is significantly better than the -24% decline in buybacks for the rest of the stocks in the S&P 500.
