The market capitalization of a great many companies on the stock exchange doesn’t total $7 billion. That’s a large pile of money. Yet it was that net amount (to be technical, it was $7.06 billion) that credit card giant Visa (NYSE: V) ultimately spent on share buybacks in 2016.
I’m not generally a fan of buybacks, although I accept that at times they can be useful for companies and beneficial for shareholders. But Visa’s spend is simply excessive.