Buyback activity declined slightly last week with 12 companies announcing buybacks. Three out of these 10 companies happened to be banks. Medical diagnostics and devices company Hologic (HOLX) and oil refiner HF Sinclair Corporation (DINO) announced $1 billion buybacks each representing around 6.4% and 9.2%  of their market caps at announcement respectively. The buyback announcement that stood out last week in terms of the size of the announcement was the $3 ...

Buyback activity edged down a little last week with 14 companies announcing buybacks. We saw several announcements that exceeded a billion dollars. The $5 billion buyback announcement by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and the $10 billion additional buyback by Comcast Corporation (CMCSA) were significant. This is the second $10 billion buyback Comcast has announced this year. The prior one was announced in January representing around 5% of its market cap ...

The challenging macro economic environment we find ourselves in is the elephant in the room that has to be addressed before we can dive into our regular programming of discussing stock buyback activity. The higher than expected CPI numbers released on Tuesday and especially the persistently high core CPI numbers shook the markets and triggered a huge decline in most indices. I wrote the following about the CPI print on ...

Buyback activity edged up a little with 9 companies announcing buybacks last week. Synopsys (SNPS) announced an additional buyback of $1.5 billion representing around 3% of its market cap at announcement. The company beat earnings expectations in each of the last four quarters and net margin of 20.86% and return on equity of 19% were higher than prior quarters. Synopsis has been consistently announcing buybacks but the net impact on ...

Buyback activity continued to decline with only 7 companies announcing stock buybacks last week. Considering most companies announce buybacks when reporting earnings, this drop is expected. Salesforce (CRM) announced a $10 billion buyback, the most significant buyback in dollars. The buyback represents around 6% of its market cap at announcement. This is the company’s first-ever share repurchase program. Commenting on the company’s performance during the second quarter of fiscal 2023, ...

Buyback activity slowed down last week with only 12 companies announcing buybacks. The company that topped our list with a 17% buyback was Winnebago Industries (WGO), manufacturer and seller of recreational vehicles. WGO announced a $350 million share repurchase on August 17, 2022. Elevated gas prices combined with a weakening housing market is likely to have a negative impact on RV sales in the near future. The stock is undeniably ...

As we approach the end of earnings season, buyback announcement also slowed down with 15 new announcements during the last week. Two tiny microcap companies topped the list with buybacks representing 45% and 15.2% of their market caps at announcement. Both are unfortunately money losing companies and one of them, Exela Technologies (XELA), also happens to have a highly leveraged balance sheet. Gaming company Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) announced a massive ...

Long subject to criticism, stock buybacks came under attack once again when the new Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 imposed a 1% excise tax on stock repurchases for publicly traded companies. While it is only a 1% tax and unlikely to change behavior of companies in any significant way, I am concerned that we are heading down a slippery slope with ad hoc taxes. This decision did not take the ...

Buyback activity ramped up this week at the start of earnings season with 35 companies announcing buybacks this week. The company that topped the list is Olin Corporation (OLN), manufacturer and worldwide distributor of chemical products. On July 28, 2022, Olin announced a new $2 billion buyback announcement representing around 27% of its market cap at announcement. A total of 14 companies including OLN announced buybacks that crossed the $1 ...

Buyback activity appears to be picking up momentum this week with companies starting to announce their Q2 earnings. There were 14 new buyback announcements this week and incidentally four of these announcements were by banks (BLFY, RMBI, MGYR and CBNK). AutoNation (AN) and cloud security company F5 Inc. (FFIV) announced a $1 billion additional buyback each representing 14.8% and 10.7% of their market caps at announcement respectively. AutoNation is one ...