It’s artificial though. It boosts the stock price by reducing number of outstanding shares which makes the P/E more attractive. It does nothing to actually improve the business operations, gain efficiencies or expansion. It’s just more short term market thinking.
Dividends attract certain investors who are looking for income vs. growth which is a whole different type of investing style. Stock buybacks are not dividends. For one thing they are not tied to the fundamentals of the business’ performance which is what dividends are all about.
This is all just re-arranging financial deck chairs so that executives and major shareholders get into the life boats first.
