Anti-share-buy-backers = Bird-brains! Suncor’s total return February 10 2021 (start of last buyback) - Now = 59% (Capital Gains $36.64/$23.03) + 4.5% Dividend.= 63.5 %! (so why so much complaining)?
Share buybacks have a cumulative effect just like compounding interest.
Suncor will be buying back 5% of its shares starting February 10.
So over 222 trading days (1.46B (total shares out) x .05) = 73 Million shares will be bought or 73M/222 = 329K shares will be purchased on average per day.
Average daily volume (TSE & NYSE) = 17.5 million. Wikipedia says 10 - 40% of daily volume is due to high frequency trading so I will take the middle of that 25% and therefor assume the number of Suncor shares actually being bought and sold by individuals and Institutions daily is 18 million x 75% =13.5 million.
So... on any given day ~2.5% 0f the daily volume (329,000/13,500,000) will be getting taken off the market.
Share buybacks have a cumulative effect just like compounding interest. Usually sellers are negative on the company’s prospects so they sell. Everyday 2.5% of these "negative" shares are being sucked up and disappeared never to be seen again. This is a permanent improvement to the company on the other hand once the divy goes out the door its never seen again.
BTW if you look at the recent corperate presentation a divy increase is planned for 2022. Don't worry Suncor will have plenty of money for that.