In the following video, Fool contributor Matt Thalman discusses why he thinks Las Vegas Sands' recent announcement to initiate a $2 billion share-buyback program was a better decision than increasing the company's current yearly dividend payment of $1.40 per share.
At today's current share price of around $56 per share, with $2 billion the company could buy back around 35 million shares, or 8.8% of the 401 million shares currently in float. But that same $2 billion would increase the dividend by roughly only $0.41 per share, and since the buyback program is over a number of years, if we split the dividend by four, shareholders would get only about an extra $0.10 per share per year, or $0.025 per quarter.
While Matt does agree that the buyback was the better way to go, he says he'd like to see the company do something with the shares it repurchases. Watch the video to find out what that is.
