Apart from irresponsible behavior of not reducing debt or not keeping enough money reserves, few other points to note: - CEO and the executive board gets pay rise based on stock price increase which is a silly math because the total market cap does not increase.. - Share buyback gives a quick boost to share prices, and often, the executives have found to be selling shares immediately after share buyback. It's almost like they pre-plan the buyback and following stock sale. There are many studies showing this to be a more common practice.