That is correct about share buybacks. An infamous example (in my opinion as I am a shareholder and former employee) is IBM using them for “financial engineering” to help increase the earnings per share. They have been doing this for several years now and it actually is not helping things. For the curious take a look at IBM’s performance the last 5 years vs the DOW or S&P500 and you will see what I mean. The inky good thing right now about the stock is the very nice dividend. Not to worry though my shares were bought years ago while I was an employee and at 15% discount so are very much in the black. But anyone buying the stock more recent times is very much in the red except for the dividends. Google IBM share buybacks and you will find a lot of negative commentary about it and being part of “financial engineering” in an unsuccessful attempt to meet quarterly earnings targets.