Instead of buying low, they are buying high. They are doing the exact opposite of what smart investors do. As you can see in the chart above, the S&P 500 started the third quarter of 2020 at 3,100 and ended it at 3,363. The index has gone straight up from there. The companies that make up the index repurchased $101.8 billion worth of stock in the third quarter of 2020. Meanwhile, in the third quarter of 2021, the S&P 500 traded within a range of 4,297 to 4,307, which, on average, is 33% higher than where it traded in 2020. At these much higher prices, management teams of S&P 500 companies more than doubled their rate of share repurchases to $234.6 billion. Instead of using share repurchases to create value by paying bargain prices, they use repurchases to destroy value by paying expensive prices. Why not accumulate cash when share prices are high? That way, companies have dry powder to repurchase shares at lower prices during the next stock market swoon. It frustrates me beyond belief. But management teams are doing something that upsets me even more... |
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