Buffett on Share Repurchases

Gillette doesn’t repurchase their shares … Coke consistently repurchases their shares. We generally like the policy of companies that have really wonderful businesses repurchasing their shares. The problem with most companies repurchasing their shares is that they are frequently so-so businesses and they are repurchasing shares for purposes other than intensifying the interest of shareholders in a wonderful business. It’s hard to do things intelligently with money in this world and Coke has been very intelligent about using their capital, particularly to fortify and develop their bottler network around the world, but there’s only so far you can go with that, and to enhance the ownership of shareholders in a company like Coca-Cola [is great].

Source: BRK Annual Meeting 1997