6 Comments

Love your work, thanks for making me smarter.

Expand full comment

Humbled to be mentioned in this outstanding article. Thank you Janelle!

Buy-backing shares to offset dilution is not necessarily bad if done at a price well below the intrinsic value. However the adverse incentive to keep purchasing also at irrational prices is a real risk. I would value case by case.

"large cap SaaS companies are spending a sizeable portion (30%) of their cash flow on share repurchases but shares outstanding are still rising (+7%)" = insane.

Expand full comment

Janelle:

Incredible analysis in part I and part Ii.

Stock dilutive overhang and its adverse impact, if overdone, has been a major part of my due diligence for 20+ years.

It would be awesome to see a general market analysis on this in the other direction - public companies that grow, earn, and do NOT overdo SBC and its dilutive effect.

The concentration and analysis you've done on saas and AI stocks is a wonderful start.

Here is a screen by two brothers of the Indian stock market looking for "growth without dilution" which may be simple and overlook buybacks above intrinsic value, but it is still wonderful:

https://www.screener.in/screens/226712/growth-without-dilution/

Would you know of any analysis or screen like this of the U.S. market? It would be an awesome start, to find companies that limit dilution, generally, as your saas/ai graph does for that specific industry.

DP

Expand full comment

Great article! Any insights on SBC and it’s correlation to layoffs?

Expand full comment

Great work Janelle. From am issuer perspective, does it trigger a tax event when options are exercised and company receives cash from conversion into shares? (I am assuming it is NOT a cashless exercise). Thank you

Expand full comment
author

Great question, I'm not an expert on this specific topic but this article from PWC might help: https://viewpoint.pwc.com/dt/us/en/pwc/accounting_guides/income_taxes/income_taxes__16_US/chapter_17_income_ta_US/172_basics_of_accoun_US.html

Expand full comment