Share buyback is the same as giving dividends - except the share holder doesn’t have to pay taxes until they sell. To the company, they spend the same amount on share buyback vs giving dividends. I don’t see how this argument holds up.
Further more, while some might argue that corporate R&D is better due to being closer to the problem but it is private research and not shared with the world like university research is.
If they really wanted that dividend, they could see that the company is doing $X in buybacks, figure out what percent of its market cap that works out to, sell a corresponding amount, and pretend it's a dividend.
A lot of shareholders also DRIP, but they should prefer buybacks for tax reasons.
depends how sophisticated the investor in the story is. it thay are perfect homo economicus they would have been selling some of those inflated shares to do what they would have done with the dividends
Further more, while some might argue that corporate R&D is better due to being closer to the problem but it is private research and not shared with the world like university research is.