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The whole point is to make money for the owners. For any individual investor, they can sell, but not the owners as a whole.

Buying the stock back when it's undervalued might be a better way to do it, though.

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From what I've seen, buybacks are often more about preventing dilution due to share-based compensation; they're effectively a tax-advantaged dividend. However, they can also be a sign of a company that has no better idea for spending their capital, which can indicate a decline in the ROI of their R&D. Could HP and IBM have done better with their cash over the last 10-15 years than buying back stock? Share repurchases seem to obfuscate with plausible deniability whether the intent is to return capital in a tax-advantaged way, or whether there's just a basic lack of faith in investing in new innovations.

Id rather just have the cash in my hand rather than some hypothetical increase in the share price.

Then again all my shares are in an ISA so I don't pay tax on dividends

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