Apple announced a stock buyback last year: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/technology/apple-stock-buyback-earnings.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/te

Apple announced a stock buyback last year: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/technology/apple-stock-buyback-earnings.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/technology/apple-stock-bu... Microsoft announcing in 2016 an increase to their existing buyback plans: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/microsoft-plans-to-repurchase-up-to-another-40-billion-in-stock https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/microsoft... Google stock buyback from 2016: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-stock-buy-back-8589869056-perfect-number-2018-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/google-stock-buy-back-858986... Facebook stock buyback from 2016: https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-is-doing-a-6-billion-stock-buyback-2016-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-is-doing-a-6-billio... So, yes, definitely a thing. I'm not a finance person, but there are reasons why a stock buyback would make sense. Returning money to investors is one. Another is that the more of its own stock the company owns, the easier it is to give stock (or options or whatever) as bonuses to employees.