By Sinéad Carew
(Reuters) - U.S. companies continued a shopping spree for their own shares in May, making $173.6 billion (129.54 billion pounds) in buyback announcements, the highest monthly total ever, according to a research report.
In May U.S.-listed companies also sold new shares at the fastest pace in three years, but cash takeovers of companies with U.S. listings fell to a three-month low, according to TrimTabs Investment Research.
The high number of buyback announcements was due "in large part" to expected corporate tax savings, it said.
TrimTabs said Apple Inc (O:AAPL) was the biggest spender, with an announcement for potential buybacks of up to $100 billion, while Micron Technology (O:MU) made a $10.0 billion announcement, followed by Qualcomm Inc 's (O:QCOM) $8.8 billion buyback proposal.
Adobe Systems (O:ADBE) said it would buy $8.0 billion of its stock and T-Mobile (O:TMUS) announced $7.5 billion in buybacks.
The tally for cash takeovers involving companies with U.S. listings was $27.7 billion, according to TrimTabs. It said that the largest deals were Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical's (T:4502) offer for rival Shire PLC (L:SHP) (O:SHPG) for $9.0 billion and Elliott Management's $6.3 billion buyout bid for Athenahealth (O:ATHN).
Underwriters were also active in May, with new equity offerings spiking to a three-year high of $43.6 billion, according to the report. It said that AXA Equitable Holdings' (N:EQH) $3.6 billion listing was the largest initial public offering since March 2017.
S&P 500 companies returned a record $1 trillion to shareholders the past year, according to a late May report from S&P Dow Jones indices. It cited a surge in dividends and stock buybacks after sweeping corporate tax cuts introduced by Republicans late in 2017.