Besides companies often buying back stock when it is high, one thing that often happens is that they buy back shares to offset the shares they are giving to emp

Besides companies often buying back stock when it is high, one thing that often happens is that they buy back shares to offset the shares they are giving to employees. I bet if you look at the number of shares at the beginning and end of the period I'll be they are more or less the same. Perhaps Dell wasn't as profitable as the author thought, if the cost of options had actually been factored in. And I don't see how a stock dividend ("scrip dividend" in the article) is any solution. All it does is multiply everyone's number shares by some percentage. So, of course, the market just cuts the price by that percentage. It's not taxed because 10 shares @ $10 = $100 and 15 shares @ $6.66 = $100. It's not taxed because no money is actually given.