IBM Boosts Share Buyback Again
IBM must really hate the idea of paying a big dividend. Every year, it seems, IBM authorizes billions of more dollars for share buybacks while increasing its dividend by the smallest amount possible. Then, the company goes on to crow about how it has returned "… over $109 billion since 2008 to our shareholders through share repurchases and dividends." Anyone want to guess how much went to share repurchases and how much went to dividends? If you are thinking 50/50, you aren’t even close. As The Register points out, the share buybacks are a lot more beneficial for IBM executives hoping to keep the earnings per share, or EPS, growing at the proper rate to "earn" their bonuses than they are for shareholders looking to increase the value of their holdings. Of course, there is nothing illegal or even unethical about IBM’s giant share buybacks, but it does raise the question, "Can’t IBM come up with anything better to spend its money on than its own stock?" If not, shouldn’t shareholders just get a check instead of the world’s biggest pile of treasury stock? The company authorized an additional $7 billion dollars to buy its own stock this time around …