> It seems like your assumption is that a stock buyback is a short term gain.
My argument is a stock buyback isn't a gain for a long-term, buy-and-hold investor. Unless
a) they sell some of the stock or
b) it pays dividends
they don't see the benefit of a higher stock price or reduced share count.
Qualified dividends and long term capital gains are taxed at the same rate. So anyone who says "buybacks are more tax-advantaged" is leaving out the second part: "because you can borrow against a higher stock price without paying taxes". Since most (non-rich) people don't do that stock buybacks have the same tax (dis)advantage as dividends. If you know of a way to get tax-free money out of a higher stock price other than borrowing on margin, please tell me. I'd love to learn.
> decreasing that amount will “artificially” raise the stock price
It isn't "artificial". There are fewer shares in circulation/more demand for the shares. That legitimately translates into a higher price. But stock options and grants are generally given to employees and especially executives. So a reduced share count and higher share price is particularly good for them.
> One of your arguments is that the strike price for options is set based on a certain amount of stock in circulation
My argument was more that when employees are paid a significant portion of their compensation in stock they tend to sell much of it upon vest (sensibly) in order to diversify or even just to pay their bills. Ergo, being frequent sellers, they benefit from the higher stock price more than they would from regular dividend payments. A higher stock price directly translates into higher compensation. Wouldn't this be a powerful incentive for company management to prefer buybacks over dividends?
> I suppose the other part of the argument could be that R&D is good for the stock in the long term
I didn't say anything about R&D spending. A company should return as much profit to shareholders as it sees fit.
I was rebutting the common, I believe simple-minded, argument that buybacks and dividends are completely equivalent. Even though the company spends the same amount of money, I think they are different in some very significant ways.