Salient to Investors:
Jeffrey Kleintop at LPL Financial said US companies announced $275 billion of repurchases this quarter, the highest in more than 5 years. 79 percent of buyback orders at Goldman Sachs corporate trading desk were active yesterday, the most in 2013.
Jim Welsh at Forward Mgmt said the overall buy-the-dip mentality is very, very prevalent and corporate buybacks help support the market. Welsh said many buybacks are on autopilots.
The Nasdaq Buyback Achievers Index of companies that repurchased at least 5 percent of their shares in the previous 12 months, has tripled since March 2009 versus the 144 percent gain in the S&P 500.
David Kostin at Goldman Sachs said the S&P 500 is at 15 times 2013 earnings estimates versus the 5-year average of 13 times.
Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-24/goldman-sachs-buyback-orders-reach-highest-level-of-year.html
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