> Buybacks and dividends are not the same thing. Buybacks get preferential tax treatment and are in their entirety manipulative OK - answer me this. How can a

> Buybacks and dividends are not the same thing. Buybacks get preferential tax treatment and are in their entirety manipulative OK - answer me this. How can a publicly traded company buy more of its own shares (i.e. to get a higher ownership stake)? Or even buy them because they believe they are undervalued? > Dividends are predictable, have a consistent rate across the years Except this is not true. A company decides each quarter how much dividend to pay out. There's usually nothing preventing them from saying "Nah, sorry." We all know plenty of companies that simply don't pay dividends, no matter how profitable.