1.As Expected….Buyback Explosion Post Tax Cut.
You will notice that this new quarterly record was nearly double that previous one. Corporations aren’t just gradually ramping up their repurchases; they’re falling over themselves to do so.
But is total buyback activity a good stock market indicator? In the 1980s and 1990s, at least, it was. In those decades, a number of academic studies found, the stock of the average company that announced a new buyback company proceeded to significantly outperform the market over several years following that announcement.
Since then, the situation has changed. One recent study, for example, found no outperformance from buyback activity over the decade through 2012 — that the stock of the average company announcing a buyback performed no better than the S&P 500 SPX, -0.58% after that repurchase program was announced.
Opinion: Stock buybacks are no reason to buy a stock
Share repurchases once signaled confidence, but now just substitute for dividends
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-buybacks-are-no-reason-to-buy-a-stock-2018-07-31
PKW-Buyback ETF Still Below Peaks
