why does microsoft want to buy stock back from stockholders?

Answer 1

because they're probably planning something soon that will require a stockholder vote, and they want the majority of votes.

Answer 2

It could be a manipulation (bump the value) or it could represent knowledge of an up-cycle.

In general, sharp investors look to see what the majority shareholders are doing with their own stock before they make a purchase. The question is, does this move represent real value, or is it to entice further investment or create the illusion of profitability?

Several sites are rating Microsoft as a "buy" v. a "sell" right now:

http://www.stockpickreport.com/rating.php?sym=MSFT&src=overture

I remember talking to a friend of mine that was a serious investor.
He made $90,000.00 in thirty days buying bank stock years ago when everyone was selling like crazy. His secret of success was gathering of facts. Not the bilge being pumped out by the analysts who often have a conflict of interest. He made it his business to know the board members, the president, the amount of inventory, hard sales numbers, debt ratio, market trends, etc. before he made his stock purchasing decisions.

As a disclaimer, I do not invest in stocks. But you can rest assured that if I did, I would first make certain my investment dollar was based on hard fact and not hype.

Answer 3

All company decisions are made to maximise profit. Microsoft might have spare cash and nothing to invest in at the moment. Therefore, a sound decision will be to pay debt (so they wont get charged interest on cash they don't need) or buy back shares from shareholders (so they don't have to pay dividends). Another reason might be to increase thier ownership to a certian level to make it easier to make decisions. For example, if some one (a person or company) have more than 50% ownership in a company they can vote on any decision and even if the rest of the shareholders voted against it, the (person or company with more than 50% will win the vote.

Answer 4

Whenever a company wants to buy stock back, it means that they think it's worth alot more than it's presently selling for.

In fact, by taking the action of buying back stock, less shares are available to the general public, which in turn, also increases the value of the stock.

Answer 5

Probably because they know they stock is about to go up and they want to keep all the money for themselves.

Answer 6

So they can sell it back for twice the amount?