RE:Institution and retail investor goal don't necessarily alignYou make good points. Obviously one of the reasons SU took a trip to $14 was due to the need to borrow money to get by. It’s not a good look for a company if even only for a period of time. I agree with them paying off debt. It does make the company stronger.
I just don’t see the value in buying back shares. Especially when they just turn around and issue almost the same amount to themselves. Seems to me SU will be valued on the yield because that’s the kind of company they are.
I just played around with excel and” if” and that’s a mighty big if, SU bought back 1% of its shares per quarter it would take 30 quarters to half the shares and theoretically double the dividend. That’s 7.5 years. They could double the dividend right now with what they are paying to buyback shares.