The WSJ has a story with the scare headline Big Buybacks Begin to Haunt Firms but, with the exception of certain financial firms, the story would appear to be rather the opposite:

share buybacks and dividends continue to remain popular forms of improving shareholder returns among S&P 500 companies, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P. This year, 60 of the S&P 500’s 88 dividend-paying financial companies increased their dividends. In the S&P 500 overall, more than half the companies either increased or initiated dividend payments. Only one company, mortgage-insurer MGIC Investment Corp., has reduced its dividend, says Mr. Silverblatt.

Also, S&P 500 companies are on track to spend more than half a trillion dollars buying back shares this year, up from $436 billion last year. “Companies still have the enormous ability to finance their share repurchases,” he says.

Bulls argue that the moves by the large companies obscure continued buybacks from some smaller companies. This week, for example, Nacco Industries Inc., a Cleveland-based truck, housewares and mining holding company with a market value of $750 million, announced a plan to buy back as much as $100 million of Class A stock.

For all the hand-wringing, a number of large companies continue to announce buybacks, including Alcoa Inc. Yesterday, Target Corp. announced a $10 billion share-repurchase authorization.

The “hand-wringing” would appear to be that of the WSJ itself. Related item from Reuters: ” Americans enter holidays in dark mood.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 8:01 pm and is filed under General, MSM, business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.