I don't get this fascination with dividends this does not make much sense to me:
"Mart has an excellent chance of earning $1.50 a share in 2013. Any idea what it means when they have an ability to start paying a $1.00 per share dividend? ....Be patient, and your dividends will make you very rich...
IMHO, Mart's buying back its shares is pointless"
If you really think they can earn $1.50 for a long time then why would you not want them to for instance buy back 25% of their shares. That would give you $2.00 earnings and allow a $1.50 dividend instead of a $1.00 dividend - how is a 50% higher dividend flow for eternity for the price of half of this years earnings pointless exactly?
Plus for anyone who expects rising oil prices an increase in future dividends should be much more valuable than current dividends.
IMO a dividend is only of advantage for traders who do not intend to hold this stock for a long time, which is probably why there are so many pro-dividend posts on this board. But if Mart thinks they have enough oil for many years of production they should reward long-term shareholders and buy back stock as long as it is cheap, meaning before any dividend is declared, instead of giving traders a chance to flip it on a dividend-bounce. If they don't buy back shares now I would interpret that as lack of confidence in their future.
Plus, share buybacks save taxes and annoying paperwork and instead of cash you get your money reinvested into shares of a company you have already demonstrated to prefer over cash by buying their shares - only this time Mart can buy those shares for you with better timing and lower fees.