Barron's Report on Buyback Spending Vs. Dividends

According to Barron's, stock buybacks are at a new low since S&Ps arrival on the financial intelligence scene. S&P 500 companies pumped in a mere $24.2 billion in repurchase, a 72% drop as compared to Q2 in 2008. This is a far cry from the $172 billion spent in the third quarter of 2007 when companies spent over 180% on stock repurchases than they did on dividends.

Currently, Barron's tells us that buyback spending has dropped to half that of dividends. However, some of the larger companies like ExxonMobil (NASDAQ: XOM) spent approximately $5.2 billion while Wal-Mart (NASDAQ: WMT) pushed in $1.9 billion.