WSJ Article On Stock Buybacks Sept 15 
Companies' Stock Buybacks Help Buoy the Market
Share Repurchases Are at Fastest Clip Since Financial Crisis
By
DAN STRUMPF
Sept. 15, 2014 7:24 p.m. ET
Companies are buying their own shares at the briskest clip since the financial crisis, helping fuel a stock rally amid a broad trading slowdown.
Corporations bought back $338.3 billion of stock in the first half of the year, the most for any six-month period since 2007, according to research firm Birinyi Associates. Through August, 740 firms have authorized repurchase programs, the most since 2008.
The growth in buybacks comes as overall stock-market volume has slumped, helping magnify the impact of repurchases. In mid-August, about 25% of nonelectronic trades executed at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., excluding the small, automated, rapid-fire trades that have come to dominate the market, involved companies buying back shares. That is more than twice the long-run trend, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The surge underscores share-price gains by many companies repurchasing stock more than five years after shares hit their low in the late stages of the financial crisis.
Companies with the largest buyback programs by dollar value have outperformed the broader market by 20% since 2008, according to an analysis by Barclays PLC.
"There are a couple of reasons why companies do buybacks," said Jonathan Glionna, head of U.S. equity strategy at Barclays. "One is that it seems to work; it makes stocks go up."
Some investors applaud repurchases as an appropriate way to return cash to shareholders by buying their stock or putting excess funds to work, akin to dividends but without the tax bite for shareholders.
Other reasons to repurchase shares include to increase per-share earnings, a figure scrutinized by investors, and to offset the effect of employee compensation plans when workers sell shares back into the market.
According to Barclays, companies in the second quarter spent 31% of their cash flow on
Share Repurchases Are at Fastest Clip Since Financial Crisis
By
DAN STRUMPF
Sept. 15, 2014 7:24 p.m. ET
Companies are buying their own shares at the briskest clip since the financial crisis, helping fuel a stock rally amid a broad trading slowdown.
Corporations bought back $338.3 billion of stock in the first half of the year, the most for any six-month period since 2007, according to research firm Birinyi Associates. Through August, 740 firms have authorized repurchase programs, the most since 2008.
The growth in buybacks comes as overall stock-market volume has slumped, helping magnify the impact of repurchases. In mid-August, about 25% of nonelectronic trades executed at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., excluding the small, automated, rapid-fire trades that have come to dominate the market, involved companies buying back shares. That is more than twice the long-run trend, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The surge underscores share-price gains by many companies repurchasing stock more than five years after shares hit their low in the late stages of the financial crisis.
Companies with the largest buyback programs by dollar value have outperformed the broader market by 20% since 2008, according to an analysis by Barclays PLC.
"There are a couple of reasons why companies do buybacks," said Jonathan Glionna, head of U.S. equity strategy at Barclays. "One is that it seems to work; it makes stocks go up."
Some investors applaud repurchases as an appropriate way to return cash to shareholders by buying their stock or putting excess funds to work, akin to dividends but without the tax bite for shareholders.
Other reasons to repurchase shares include to increase per-share earnings, a figure scrutinized by investors, and to offset the effect of employee compensation plans when workers sell shares back into the market.
According to Barclays, companies in the second quarter spent 31% of their cash flow on