Art, I beg to disagree, it used to be that companies bought shares only when they were "cheap", the larger companies have adopted buy backs which are as regular as clockworks, MSFT even sell put against its future buy backs to lower its cost of acquisition, and even at $80, the stock is not cheap (as related to book etc.). As for utilization of debt in a solid balance sheet, I laud ity, when done in measure, it is the principle of using OPM without diluting equity. Of course, if you can issue shares at 20 times book value, equity funding will be preferred. Whether debt or equity is used, surely should not be a question of taste, but of pure "business judgement".
Zeev |
