Learn
Everything about buybacks, without the cheerleading
Nine guides that take you from the basic mechanics to the checklist professionals use. Each one links to the live numbers on this site so you can test the ideas on real companies.
Basics
What is a stock buyback?
A plain-language explanation of share repurchases: what happens, why companies do it, how big the market is, and what it changes for you as a shareholder.
Buybacks vs dividends
Both return cash to shareholders. They differ in tax, flexibility, signalling and who ends up owning the company. Here is how to think about the trade-off.
Buyback glossary
Every term used on this site, defined in one or two sentences, from accelerated share repurchase to treasury stock.
Metrics
Buyback yield, explained
The single most useful buyback number: what buyback yield is, how to calculate it, what counts as high, and the traps that make it misleading.
Net buybacks and the stock-compensation treadmill
Why gross repurchases overstate what shareholders get, how employee stock awards dilute you, and how to compute the net buyback that actually matters.
Analysis
How to evaluate a buyback programme
An eight-point checklist for judging whether a company's repurchases are creating value or quietly destroying it, with the numbers to look for on each company page.
Buybacks and earnings per share
How repurchases lift EPS without changing profit, when that is real value and when it is an illusion, and the simple arithmetic that separates the two.