Art,
This is a typical example of the use of stock buybacks, which rarely if ever occur after the stock has already appreciated
check out MSFT, which buys back about $6BB a year of its own stock, after it has now appreciated however many hundreds/thousands of times. likewise, IBM continues to take on debt for stock buybacks, at a rate far in excess of its purchases at much lower levels a decade ago.
I would reiterate, however, that, at a time when wireless is a rapidly growing and changing field, any dividend, even if it is in the form of return of capital, seems out of place.
personally, i think QCOM has done all the capital "seeding" it needs to do to get the CDMA ball rolling, and i would like to see them return to core competencies and the high-margin business model upon which their valuation rests.
i just commented on the agency-cost issue in some detail on the NOK thread #reply-16861459 |
