@rbreich the point of buybacks is to drive share price up which inflates the value of stock options for executives. The impact on share price is also usually transient, so they are essentially burning cash to give execs stock-based bonuses. This is in addition to cutting expenses by reducing maintenance & quality budgets, to increase earnings, which also drives up the share price. Buybacks do NOT return cash to shareholders, it's a smokescreen for hiding bonuses.