We use public policy to, in general, encourage firms to do things that create Economic Surplus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_surplus …
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Not all surplus-creating transactions are socially valuable, of course, and we do lots with the public purse to pursue transfers to create equality of opportunity and the environment necessary for trade.
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But, in general, transactions that don't create a surplus are weird and suspect. And buybacks such a bad look, even by those standards. Why? A quick tour:
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First, understand that investors provide their capital to businesses in the hopes that mangers will use it wisely to create a return on that investment. That is, they entrust money to others to invest.
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Some managers believe they won't be able to grow their businesses further; can't find a good way to spend what they've got and no prospects to invest it well. The usual solution is a dividend: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dividend.asp …
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Dividends do not affect the ownership structure of the firm. The same set of owners retain the same % interest in the firm before and after a dividend.
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Buybacks, on the other hand, serve to shrink the pool of public owners (shares are bought from public owners and "taken private"). *IN THEORY* buybacks shouldn't affect the price of the stock more than a dividend of equivalent size would.
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...except the tax treatment is different: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/073015/dividend-versus-buyback-which-better.asp …
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Further, in the very short term, buybacks look like demand for the stock ("information"), but do not reflect a material change in the prospects for the business. They're old news that looks like new-news. They game the market's information-gathering and pricing system.
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...all while concentrating ownership, giving managers greater power, and depriving the firm of ways to invest in growth. Buybacks should be a red flag, and yet: https://us.spindices.com/indices/strategy/sp-500-buyback-index …
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It should also be disturbing to work at a firm that engages in this sort of thing. It means management is spending time engineering share price increases rather than using cash-on-hand to invest in future growth.
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