GS: Buybacks Are Falling Out Of Favor, Buy Dividends

According to Goldman Sachs’s US Weekly Kickstart research booklet, investors are beginning to reverse the long-term trend of rewarding firms spending cash to repurchase shares, as corporate debt levels soar and equity valuations trade close to all-time highs. Q1 Buybacks Break Post-Recession Records This conclusion is based on the performance of Goldman Sachs’ ‘buyback basket’ of stocks, which has returned 5% year-to-date compared to 7% for the S&P 500. Buybacks are underperforming  The performance of Goldman’s ‘buyback basket’ isn’t the only indicator that shows investors could be getting bored with buybacks. Figures show that buyback executions have decelerated since reaching a…