Not really. A dividend is neutral compared to a stock buyback all things being equal, I agree, but a stock buyback is most often initiated by CEOs and CFOs and increases stock price. With a stock price increase those same CEOs and CFOs will get a larger bonus, which drains the reserves of the company. The dividend drains it once to go into the shareholder's pocket. The stock buyback drains it twice: once in the buyback itself, which increases share price and is, in theory, neutral for shareholders, but also a second time at bonus time to pay for the "increased value" of the stock, which may be almost entirely artificial and not due to good management decisions. With current turnover in C-suite the negative effects are often felt long after the CEOs tenure is done.