Share buybacks
Cash spent repurchasing own shares, which reduces the number of shares outstanding.
The company buys its own shares in the market and retires them, so the same profit is split across fewer shares: your percentage of the company rises without you doing anything. It's a form of shareholder return equivalent to a dividend, but without an immediate tax event for the holder.
It only creates value if shares are bought below what the company is worth, and the evidence says many buy back at highs, when cash is abundant. The honest check isn't the amount repurchased but the share count: if the amount is huge and the count doesn't fall, the buyback is merely papering over dilution from stock compensation. That's why the tab shows both together.
Where to see it on ValuatePad
Year by year, for every company, in the tab Shareholder returns.