Stock buyback announcements slowed down last week on account of an earnings related lull, with 18 companies announcing buybacks. The most significant one in absolute dollars terms was NIKE (NKE), announcing a $18 billion buyback representing around 10.35% of its market cap at announcement. The buyback was a bright spot in otherwise lackluster fiscal Q4 2022 earnings for Nike, which saw sales drop almost 1% year-over-year to $12.23 billion on account of declining sales in China and inventory levels build up 23% to $8.4 billion. Darden Restaurants (DRI) and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK) announced buybacks of $1 billion each representing around 7% and 9.6% of their market caps at announcement respectively.
After passing the Federal Reserve’s stress test and emerging as one of the stronger U.S. banks, Morgan Stanley (MS) not only announced a 11% increase in its dividend but it also announced a $20 billion buyback representing nearly 15% of its market cap at announcement. Only Charles Schwab, Discover and State Street had better stressed ratios than Morgan Stanley as you can see from page 15 of the stress test results.