Firms Furiously Buy Back Shares to Prop Up Stock Price

U.S. companies are showing they want to buy back their own shares at the highest rate in months as record levels of cash pile up on balance sheets.

Companies recently announced 27 new buyback programs in a week totaling $18.5 billion, the most since February, according to data from TrimTabs.

"We've seen a pretty big decline in share price, so companies are trying to prop them up, and these announcements are one way they can do that," David Santschi, an analyst at TrimTabs, told the Financial Times.

"The spike is highly unusual for June, which is not an earnings announcement month. That's a bullish sign." (more)