Most investors focus on a company's growth prospects when considering a purchase of its stock. And understandably so. Revenue and earnings growth isn't the only way to add to a stock's value, however.

Reducing the number of outstanding shares of a company is another, often-overlooked means of making existing shareholders' stakes worth more. The company in question simply needs to repurchase shares of itself in the open market and then take them out of circulation.

(NASDAQ: AAPL) has been one of the more prominent names embracing this idea. Although it pays a dividend, it's opting to reward investors by buying shares of itself rather than raising its dividend payouts. Over the course of the past four reported quarters, Apple has shelled out $78.1 billion to repurchase 456 million shares of its own stock. For perspective, Apple's current market capitalization stands at $2.6 trillion, and it's got nearly 15.58 billion outstanding shares.

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Source Fool.com