Jobstreet should do more buyback if according to Buffett

Warren Buffetts's piece on buybacks in his latest 2011 Chairman's Report:

Charlie [Warren Buffett's partner] and I favor repurchases when two conditions are met: first, a company has ample funds to take care of the operational and liquidity needs of its business; second, its stock is selling at a material discount to the company’s intrinsic business value, conservatively calculated.
We have witnessed many bouts of repurchasing that failed our second test. Sometimes, of course, infractions—even serious ones—are innocent; many CEOs never stop believing their stock is cheap. In other instances, a less benign conclusion seems warranted. It doesn’t suffice to say that repurchases are being made to offset the dilution from stock issuances or simply because a company has excess cash. Continuing shareholders are hurt unless shares are purchased below intrinsic value.
The first law of capital allocation—whether the money is slated for acquisitions or share repurchases—is that what is smart at one price is dumb at another. (One CEO who always stresses the price/value factor in repurchase decisions is Jamie Dimon at J.P. Morgan; I recommend that you read his annual letter.)

Regarding price performance, Buffett argued that investors are better served if a stock price doesn’t move higher when buybacks are made. Rather, he said that long-term shareholders are better served if the stock price languishes for a period of time. Using IBM, a stock that Berkshire-Hathaway owns, as an example, Buffet explained his rationale:


If IBM’s stock price averages, say, $200 during the [next five years], the company will acquire 250 million shares for its $50 billion. There would consequently be 910 million shares outstanding, and we would own about 7% of the company. If the stock conversely sells for an average of $300 during the five-year period, IBM will acquire only 167 million shares. That would leave about 990 million shares outstanding after five years, of which we would own 6.5%.
If IBM were to earn, say, $20 billion in the fifth year, our share of those earnings would be a full $100 million greater under the disappointing scenario of a lower stock price than they would have been at the higher price. At some later point our shares would be worth perhaps $1-1/2 billion more than if the high-price repurchase scenario had taken place.
The logic is simple: If you are going to be a net buyer of stocks in the future, either directly with your own money or indirectly (through your ownership of a company that is repurchasing shares), you are hurt when stocks rise. You benefit when stocks swoon. 


In Malaysia, one company that meets that test is Jobstreet. Only thing which I would like to see is they do more repurchasing actually especially during this time when Fidelity is busily disposing some of their shareholdings in Jobstreet. They have been buying back but not fast enough. With the net cash inflow that Jobstreet gets, they should do more buyback. Or even perhaps, they should do slightly lesser dividend and do more share buyback.

Serious Investing!

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