Not sure your analysis is correct. My point is that $50,000,000 in CASH is gone - money that could have been given to the owners - $51 per share. An increase in shareholder equity gets distributed how?
I think I understand your point. The future capital raising was to do with why a buy back at depressed share price is good for the company (i.e. a better scenario than sitting on a pile of cash, with the option to raise more capital down the track if needed), not necessarily the shareholder.
From the shareholders point of view if you take the buyback, you get above market value for the shares you sell, and in either case, the real value of the shares you retain (as in your share of the company, not necessarily the market price of the shares) should (theoretically) stay constant, even though the net assets on the balance sheet has decreased, your share of those net assets has increased. People who know these things will also say that the market price of the shares should increase (at least for some time) after a buy back as its generally seen as a positive indication in the market.
The dividend alternative also wipes the cash from the balance sheet, but the number of shares stay the same, so you keep the same share of fewer net assets and (theoretically) your shares become worth less (particularly given the size of the distribution).
A share buyback can also good for shareholders in countries where capital gains are taxed more lightly than revenue (not sure what happens in the US).
I am not an expert or a shareholder, so have no opinion either way - I just don't think that a buyback is necessarily a bad thing as it can benefit both shareholder and company, whereas I think a dividend really benefits only the shareholder.
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Shares they buy back don't get dividends paid. If they can manage to borrow money for less than the dividends they'd pay out on those shares, they've made money with the loan.
Governments and large corporations don't work like your checkbook does.
I don't think the company works out dividends on a per share basis. I think it will work out the amount of the dividend and then divide it by the number of outstanding shares. Sure after a buy back the dividends per share will be bigger, but I don't think that having fewer shares outstanding directly affects the value of future dividend declarations.