No, they are ongoing. There is a lot of administrative overhead to dividends so you only want to do it 1 to 4 times a year. But, buybacks are best spread out over time so they don't cause the price to spike. MSFT decided on a 50 / 50 split with a massive dutch auction for 8.1% of the stock and then the other 20 billion as an ongoing buyback until 2011. Which they finished so they are now doing a 40 billion buyback until 2013. (This will probably also finish early.)
What's odd about buyback's is in theory they should have little effect on today's stock price, but because they concentrate value in decreasing number of shares they simulate exponential growth when the company is just milking a cash cow. Which should over time drive up the stock price and force a split.
What's odd about buyback's is in theory they should have little effect on today's stock price, but because they concentrate value in decreasing number of shares they simulate exponential growth when the company is just milking a cash cow. Which should over time drive up the stock price and force a split.