Dưới đây là trích đoạn về share buybacks (mua lại cổ phần) trong cuốn sách online Financial Accounting do University of Minnesota đăng tải miễn phí.
Question:
Why does a corporation buy back its own shares as treasury stock?
Answer:
Numerous possible reasons exist to justify spending money to reacquire an entity’s own stock. Several of these strategies are rather complicated and a more appropriate topic for an upper-level finance course. However, an overview of a few of these should be helpful in understanding the rationale for such transactions.
As a reward for service, businesses often give shares of their stock to key employees or sell them shares at a relatively low price. In some states, using unissued shares for such purposes can be restricted legally. The same rules do not apply to shares that have been reacquired. Thus, a corporation might acquire treasury shares to have available as needed for compensation purposes.
Acquisition of treasury stock can be used as a tactic to push up the market price of a company’s stock in order to please the remaining stockholders. Usually, a large scale repurchase (such as that made by Viacom) indicates that management believes the stock is undervalued at its current market price. Buying treasury stock reduces the supply of shares in the market and, according to economic theory, forces the price to rise. In addition, because of the announcement of the repurchase, outside investors often rush in to buy the stock ahead of the expected price increase. The supply of shares is decreased while demand for shares is increased. Stock price should go up. Not surprisingly, current stockholders often applaud the decision to buy treasury shares as they anticipate a jump in their investment values.
Corporations can also repurchase shares of stock to reduce the risk of a hostile takeover. If another company threatens to buy enough shares to gain control, the board of directors of the target company must decide if acquisition is in the best interest of the stockholders1. If not, the target might attempt to buy up shares of its own treasury stock in hopes of reducing the number of owners in the market who are willing to sell their shares. It is a defensive strategy designed to make the takeover more difficult to accomplish. Plus, as mentioned above, buying back treasury stock should drive the price up, making purchase more costly for the predator.