There is another issue here that we haven't touched on yet.
We've touched on it indirectly. Today's low interest rates are a strong incentive to borrow to buyback shares. The interest can be less that the dividend which is saved, and the interest is a tax writeoff. All things being equal, the EPS goes up by way of fewer shares plus the benefit of the tax writeoff. It effectively turns the dividend payout into a tax deduction, at least for the shares bought back. Intel did this last quarter. I think they should do it more.
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