[GILD} shouldn't have spent their profits on Buybacks, Dividends etc but rather they should have acquired top echelon assets.
And GILD could have done that when their stock was peaking using both the CF and stock.
PE's are sensitive to the life of the CF's, if the life is not long or going to be reinvested in assets with similar ROE then the market will drop the PE.
It is astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks too long alone ... where it is often impossible to bring one's ideas to a conclusive test either formal or experimental. J.M. Keynes