Companies are ramping up their corporate stock repurchases programs as they convert cash hoards to improve equity values. Investors can tap into this renewed interest in buybacks through targeted exchange traded fund strategies.
Through December 16, companies this month have raised their buybacks by almost two-thirds over the same period last year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Many originally believed that stock repurchases with wane this year, but the sentiment has made a one-eighty following the Donal Trump presidential victory. After reaching a record high in 2015, buybacks slowed, and many analysts predicted they will decline next year due to soft corporate-earnings growth and stretched stock valuations.
However, with President-elect Trump promising tax cuts and potential changes to help firms repatriate foreign cash hoards under a so-called tax holiday, companies could have access to new cash to be redeployed into stock repurchases.
Goldman Sachs projects S&P 500 companies will repatriate some $200 billion of their $1 trillion cash held overseas in 2017 and $150 billion could be spent on repurchases, which would further help support U.S. equities.