With a lower amount of os they will have a different group of investors and with their revenues the stock will rise. They benefit either way, without Stern I think they might do a rs however they would definitely gain some credibility, with their current shareholders, by buying back shares instead.
A third problem is that you also reduce the shares you have left to sell from the company. That limits how much cash they can raise. Oh but wait... why not just add some more shares back it as some point.