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share buybacks have been an extremely hot topic recently and many investors believe the share buybacks could be banned completely over the last decade companies have been buying their shares back aggressively with purchases peaking in recent years cumulative ly the S&P 500 companies have spent over four point five trillion dollars on buying back their own shares since 2012 and many investors are enraged when asked about his thoughts on share buybacks or share repurchases buffett shared his in-depth thoughts on the subject and explained how he thinks share buybacks should work for any business remember to Like and subscribe if you're new here but now let's turn it over to Buffett himself regarding share buybacks this question comes from David Kass he is a clinical professor of finance at the University of Maryland and he says Berkshire has invested in many companies with stock buyback programs recently there's been a backlash against buybacks what are your views on this sell that's very politically correct to be against buybacks now I'm in and you know and they're gonna incorporate it in the loan program the D there's a lot of crazy things said on buybacks buybacks are so simple I mean that it's a way of distributing cash to shareholders and let's just say that you and I and Greg the three of us decided to buy an auto dealership or a McDonald's franchise or something and we put a million dollars in you know or whatever the number may be and we get along with each other and the business grows and all of that and one of us really wants to spend our share of the earnings and the other to want to leave the money in the business to grow now the three of us did that and we only share dollars we would not establish a 100 percent dividend payout for everybody and we wouldn't freeze the one that wanted to get out either the logical thing to do is to buy a portion whatever that person wants to spend annually from the earnings buy a portion of their stock and the other to find their interest in the company goes up and the third person sell has a little more of a nit interest by what they they leave in but they also can take some money out of the business see you're taking money out of the business in the in either case and one you call dividends and you send it to everybody whether they want it or not and what buybacks you give it to the ones who want want the money and I have been following a policy of giving away stock now since 2006 and I'll give away a lot of stock but the people that the philanthropies that that receive it the gifts have to spend the money very promptly within you know on a current basis more or less so they are getting three billion dollars worth of stock or whatever it may be and I'm in effect reducing my interest in Berkshire but I'm still perks are still retaining more capital than I'm giving away so so I have more dollars invested but my interest goes down and the people that need the cash to carry out the philanthropic efforts they cash out the stock and I don't force I don't force my sister or whoever it may be take a bunch of money she doesn't want she wants it reinvested all of it reinvest in the business and people that that don't want to and so some of their stock and the company ends up in the same position we've distributed some of the capital that we don't need for growth now whether the company should buy it depends on a couple of things one is they ought to have retain the money they need for intelligent growth prospects that's fine and secondly and this is a point that's never mentioned they should be buying it back below what they think it's worth now they'll make mistakes in that but you make mistakes and a lot of business decisions but over that should be the guiding principle and of my knowledge JP Morgan Jamie Dimon said Oh once and we've said it various times you know we retains the we we will repurchase shares when it's to the advantage of the continuing shareholder to have us do so but you worry about all these buyback problems there we're gonna spend five billion buying it back or ten billion well that's like saying I'm gonna go out and buy some business this year for five billion without knowing what you're gonna get for the money it should be price sensitive obviously it should be needs sensitive obviously but when the conditions are right it should also be obvious to repurchase shares and there shouldn't be the slightest taint to it any more than there is to dividends and people would have now sort of taken up the cries about how terrible it was the company's bought back sorry well you can say it was terrible for him to pay dividends to them they'd have more money now but they were doing what was intelligent at the time and I hope they continue to do what's intelligent as they go forth Greg no I the only thing I know you've commented on in the past warrant is that I think the one thing we are seeing and obviously we're supportive of of buybacks but there are companies used probably their financial engineering was just a little extreme extreme and too cute that effectively you're using every ounce of your balance sheet to buy back stock at a time where you're really creating no cushion for your business for any type of event or bump in the road and I you know we're gonna see that and I think that's a very unfortunate outcome of them and hence you get some of the backlash but they're still companies as you highlighted many that do it right ya know if they're buying it back because it's fashionable because they really do like the idea there's nothing wrong with doing taking an action that increases the value of the remaining shares but if they're doing it very and I and incidentally I've been witness to some programs where it really is stupid but I don't think it's immoral I think it's stupid basically and on the other hand I we've favored companies that take care of all the requirements for growth and as Greg says maintain sound balance sheets and all of that leave a margin of error for things that you get surprised with and if they find their stock selling below thee but they the business is intrinsically worth I think that they're making a big mistake if they don't buy in their stocking and it's it's it's gonna be a political football and like I say that when when it becomes politically correct to do something in this country is it if you're a politician the best thing to do is get on board but but it Berkshire is gonna do what it thinks makes sense for shareholders and we and we like investing in companies that think that way too not all companies obviously do
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