CEO of Alphabet and Google Sundar Pichai during a press conference at the Chancellery in Warsaw, Poland on March 29, 2022.
Mateusz Wlodarczyk | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Alphabet said Tuesday that its board of directors approved $ 70 billion in share buybacks, a big step up from last year’s $ 50 billion authorization and $ 25 billion authorization in 2019.
The announcement Tuesday is a significant acceleration in Google’s parent company’s strategy of returning capital to shareholders through share buybacks.
Alphabet said it would take stock price as well as market conditions into account when deciding when to repurchase its shares.
In 2021, Alphabet repurchased more of its own shares than any other public company other than Apple. Facebook parent Meta finished third.
The alphabet stock fell as much as 6% in extended trading following a lack of expectations for earnings and revenue.