Apple Inc. briefly touched $3 tril­lion in mar­ket value, mak­ing it the first U.S. com­pany to do so.

Apple was one the five biggest contributors to the S&P 500’s 27% rally in 2021 along with Microsoft Corp., Nvidia Corp., Alphabet Inc. and Tesla Inc., which together accounted for 31% of the index’s performance in 2021, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices data.    

Share buybacks boost stock a company’s stock price by reducing the supply of shares in the market, effectively returning the money to investors. In addition, reduced share counts increase earnings per share, a metric used by many value-based investors to judge a stock.

Apple spent $85.5 billion to repurchase shares and $14.5 billion on dividends in Apple’s fiscal 2021 (which ended in September)

What’s next ?

Citi analysts expect Apple to announce another $90 billion in buybacks and to raise its dividend by 10%