Apple Earnings for FY19 Q1

For some time now I've tracked the number of shares Apple has. Apple released the earnings last week (I think it was last week), and you can see that the number of shares Apple has decreased over the past quarter.

Date Ended	Year - Quarter	Basic - Shares Outstanding
12/31/2013	FY14 Q1	6,272,504,000
3/31/2014	FY14 Q2	6,123,302,000
6/30/2014	FY14 Q3	6,012,635,000
9/30/2014	FY14 Q4	5,933,845,000
12/31/2014	FY15 Q1	5,843,082,000
3/31/2015	FY15 Q2	5,793,799,000
6/30/2015	FY15 Q3	5,729,886,000
9/30/2015	FY15 Q4	5,646,916,000
12/31/2015	FY16 Q1	5,558,930,000
3/31/2016	FY16 Q2	5,514,381,000
6/30/2016	FY16 Q3	5,443,058,000
9/30/2016	FY16 Q4	5,366,912,000
12/31/2016	FY17Q1	5,298,661,000
3/31/2017	FY17 Q2	5,225,791,000
6/30/2017	FY17 Q3	5,195,088,000
9/30/2017	FY17 Q4	5,149,428,000
12/31/2017	FY18 Q1	5,112,877,000
3/31/2018	FY18 Q2	5,024,877,000
6/30/2018	FY18 Q3	4,882,167,000
9/29/2018	FY18 Q4	4,801,589,000
12/29/2018	FY19 Q1	4,735,820,000

In my eyes, buybacks are good. It reduces the number of shares available on the market, and when supply goes down, demand goes up. I don't see the demand for Apple products going down enough to make me sell my Apple stock. I know the stock price has been down recently due to talk about the demand for the iPhone X, XS, and XR being lower than expected. 

Personally, I don't care. I'm holding Apple for the long term. I don't have an iPhone, but I do have an iMac, and I've been very happy with it. 

FYI - I'm not encouraging you to buy Apple, so don't read my blog as financial advice :) I'm just sharing what I'm doing and what I think. 

Signed,

Mitch