I obviously have to disagree ;)..."Your reply is a bit disingenuous as well - an increasing O/S decreases proportionally the value of an increase in earnings of the EPS. The energy, cost, and time to produce higher earnings to offset the higher O/S compared to the energy, cost, time to achieve a similar EPS on a lower O/S can be considerable."
I guess if you want to own a company making $500k a year with 300M shares outstanding you will be satisfied with no increase in the O/S. PBLS could still have 300M shares and be on the verge of insolvency. The only way out of their financial hole was to sell shares. Looks like in one way, shape or form they sold approx 2.1B more. That's about a 700% increase. Hopefully earnings (which I admit we don't know) have increased to at least the $6M-10M mark. That's a 1200-2000% increase. I know this is greatly simplified logic and I know you can do this math. But this math quantifies the "cost" as you call it. As for the extra energy and time...I follow your logic but that's not how it works in the business world. That's why you hire good management or keep existing good management in place. That's why you bring partners on board. After all, you and I both know that in business you are either growing or you are losing market share. There is no cruise control, only the mirage of such.
"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn." C.S. Lewis
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