Dell boosts buybacks as workers cash in options

Dell Inc's recent spike in share buybacks was triggered in part by increased exercising of stock options by employees after Dell's stock price jumped late last year, an analyst said on Friday. UBS analyst Ben Reitzes said an increased pace of stock buying activity could help add about 2 cents per share to his current estimate of $1.60 per share he estimates Dell can generate in its current fiscal year ending in January 2006.
The Round Rock, Texas-based company said on Thursday it has spent $1.3 billion to buy back shares so far in the current quarter, a faster rate than its earlier prediction of least $900 million in stock buybacks for the quarter.
The company's regulatory filings show that Dell has been accelerating its share buybacks gradually in recent years.
For the nine months ended in October 2004, Dell bought back 97 million shares worth $3.3 billion, a faster pace than the 63 million shares of its common stock it repurchased for $2.0 billion in fiscal 2004, according to company filings.
"While the repurchase commitment should be viewed positively, we note that an increased percentage of Dell's EPS (earnings per share) growth now comes from a lower tax rate and higher repurchases," Reitzes said.
This does little to bolster Dell's valuation the way increasing revenue would do, he said.
Buyback programmes are used by technology companies in part to offset dilution caused by the issuance of stock options to employees as part of their compensation.
Dell's additional share buybacks helped to offset stepped-up stock option activity by Dell employees after the stock accelerated up into the low $40s range from the low to mid-$30s range where Dell's stock had traded for the previous 16 months.
On Friday, Dell added 87 cents to close at $40.87, up 2.2 percent for the day on Nasdaq.
Dell revealed its increased level of shares repurchased as part of a standard renewal of its long practice of buying back stock to boost earnings and offset employee options dilution.
On Thursday, Dell said its board had added $10 billion to its share-purchase programme and extended the number of shares authorised for buyback by 250 million shares, renewing a similar, nearly expired 250-million-share programme from 2002.