I believe that stimulus will be introduced in the US with clauses that prevent stock buybacks.
I want to speculate that if the stimulus gains traction, then genuinely undervalued stocks will be worth aggressively buying at the bottom.
However many corporations openly admit and celebrate that over the last decade they have gorged on cheap stimulus money from the last crisis by issuing bonds and purchasing their own stock.
Many, if not all of those, will demonstrate that their growth was illusory, not organic fundamental growth, but merely a credit fueled bubble. For example, I saw a report that over a five year period post crisis, Pfizer spent the equivalent of 70% of its profits on buy backs, dividends and exec bonuses. In this case, if true, primary research into new molecules was stifled as a result and so their fundamentals are in my opinion not as good as what they should be.
Here, amidst the covid19 paralysis, we see Hilton Hotels spending 2 billion not on staff support, but on their own share price:
I found this site for example, but is it comprehensive? How are stock buyback announcements made and are these announcements voluntary? If they are mandatory, are those mandates somehow circumvented? How can I determine which stocks have been up till now artificially inflated with buy backs in the US.
EDIT: I am beginning to understand that the question I really want to ask is:
- How can I determine if stock buybacks have been carried out.
- How can I determine if the firm has been using buybacks to prop up share price at the expense of intrinsic value.