RE:RE:RE:RE:VIEMED HEALTHCARE ANNOUNCES SHARE REPURCHASE PROGRAM esifor wrote :"you should really stop crapping on things with irrational arguments. Share buy back is actually in the interest of the company due to its low share prices.
Really..irrational ? haha
Some Buyback Cons
For years, it was thought that stock buybacks were an entirely positive thing for shareholders. However, there are some downsides to buybacks as well. One of the most important metrics for judging a company's financial position is its EPS. EPS divides a company's total earnings by the number of outstanding shares; a higher number indicates a stronger financial position.
By repurchasing its stock, a company decreases the number of outstanding shares. A stock buyback thus enables a company to increase this metric without actually increasing its earnings or doing anything to support the idea that it is becoming financially stronger.
As an illustration, consider a company with yearly earnings of $10 million and 500,000 outstanding shares. This company's EPS, then, is $20. If it repurchases 100,000 of its outstanding shares, its EPS immediately increases to $25, even though its earnings have not budged. Investors who use EPS to gauge financial position may view this company as stronger than a similar firm with an EPS of $20 when in reality the use of the buyback tactic accounts for the $5 difference.
The key reasons buybacks are controversial:
- The impact on earnings per share can give an artificial lift to the stock and mask financial problems that would be revealed by a closer look at the company’s ratios.
- Companies will use buybacks as a way to allow executives to take advantage of stock option programs while not diluting EPS.
- Buybacks can create a short-term bump in the stock price that some say allows insiders to profit while suckering other investors. This price increase may look good at first, but the positive effect is usually ephemeral, with equilibrium regaining when the market realizes that the company has done nothing to increase its actual value. Those who buy in after the bump can then lose money.
Criticism of Buybacks
Some companies buy back shares to raise capital for reinvestment. This is all good and well until the money isn't injected back into the company. In July 2017, the Institute for New Economic Thinking published a paper titled "US Pharma’s Financialized Business Model" on pharmaceutical companies and their share buyback and dividend strategy.
The study found that share buybacks weren't being used in ways to grow the company, and in many cases, total share buybacks outnumbered funds spent on research and development (R&D). The report stated:
In the name of 'maximizing shareholder value' (MSV), pharmaceutical companies allocate the profits generated from high drug prices to massive repurchases, or buybacks, of their corporate stock for the sole purpose of giving manipulative boosts to their stock prices. Incentivizing these buybacks is stock-based compensation that rewards senior executives for stock-price 'performance.'6
And, as mentioned above, any boost to share price from the buyback seems to be short-lived. Along with Apple, Exxon Mobil, and IBM have made significant share repurchases. A CNBC article in May 2017 said since the turn of the century, total outstanding shares of Exxon Mobil have fallen 40%, and IBM's has decreased by a whopping 60% from its peak in 1995. The article notes that not only does this fit "financial engineering," but it also affects overall stock indexes that are valued on the weightings in these companies.