FYI: During the past three years, members of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index have spent more than $1.5 trillion buying back stock. This has led to a reduction in their shares outstanding of at least 4 percent in just the past year alone, by some measures.
Or has it?
A recent research report [1] published by Research Affiliates (RAFI) cast doubt on that share reduction count.
According to RAFI’s study, U.S. companies issued stock equal to $1.2 trillion last year. All told the new issues in 2014 exceeded share buybacks.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2015/11/buybacks-are-overrated/print/
