Dimitry Nakhla | Babylon Capital®
𝐃𝐞𝐯 𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬:

“Given that companies trade within a range of reasonableness and we believe in their long-term ability to compound, buying back stock remains the most efficient use of capital…

We love it when a great compounding machine buys back a lot of their stock… My preference is a company that holds virtually no cash because it keeps them from making mistakes.”
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧: Share buybacks remain one of the most powerful — and frequently underappreciated — drivers of long-term shareholder returns.
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𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭: 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘺𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦.

As Warren Buffett wrote in Berkshire’s 2022 Shareholder Letter:

“The math isn’t complicated: When the share count goes down, your interest in our many businesses goes up. Every small bit helps if repurchases are made at value-accretive prices.

At Berkshire, we directly increased your interest in our unique collection of businesses by repurchasing 1.2% of the company’s outstanding shares.”

This is the essence of buybacks.

If a company retires shares at attractive prices, 𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙨 𝙖 𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙞𝙚𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢.
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𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 (often overlooked): 𝘣𝘶𝘺𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘮.

Excess cash frequently invites poor decisions.

Peter Lynch warned about “diworsification” — when strong businesses dilute their economics through unnecessary acquisitions.

Acquisitions are difficult.

And for superior business models, 𝙖𝙘𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙣:

• Compromise business quality
• Dilute returns on capital
• Introduce integration risk
• Reduce predictability

𝘽𝙪𝙮𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨, 𝙗𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙩:

• Enhance per-share value
• Preserve business quality
• Reduce empire-building risk
• Protect shareholder economics

Capital allocation is strategy.

And disciplined buybacks are often the defining characteristic of exceptional compounding machines.
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Video: We Study Billionaires Podcast (12/05/2024)
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Dimitry Nakhla | Babylon Capital®
Chris Hohn TCI Q4 25’ 13F (Dataroma)

Top 5 holdings: $GE $V $MSFT $MCO $SPGI

Foreign securities excluded $SAF https://t.co/EBdedJYGxo
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God of Prompt
RT @godofprompt: 🚨 BREAKING: Gemini can now write and design an entire book in 48 hours.

Here are 5 insane prompts to become a published author this month: (Save for later): https://t.co/hdqbdZK4Gv
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The Transcript
RT @TheTranscript_: Big tech execs commenting on Capex in the latest earnings calls:

$META CFO: "We anticipate 2026 capital expenditures...to be in the range of $115-135B, with year-over-year growth driven by increased investment to support our Meta Superintelligence Labs efforts and core business"

$MSFT CFO: " Capital expenditures were $37.5B, and this quarter, roughly 2/3 of our CapEx was on short-lived assets, primarily GPUs and CPUs. Our customer demand continues to exceed our supply.

$AMZN CEO: "..we expect to invest about $200B in capital expenditures across Amazon in 2026...but predominantly in AWS because we have very high demand."

$GOOGL CFO: "To meet customer demand & capitalize on the growing opportunities ahead of us, our 2026 CapEx investments are anticipated to be in the range of $175B to $185B"
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The Transcript
$MS Exec: Morgan Stanley has a 200-variable model that predicts, with high accuracy, which clients will seek financial advice before they do.

“So we have a model now with over 200 variables that, if you back-test it, the top 3 deciles of clients, who we predict are going to want to have a relationship with a financial adviser, represent 90% of those clients who become clients of financial advisers.”
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The Transcript
Conferences this week: https://t.co/sE472Sa0xQ
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Jukan
SA said in an institutional report that INTC has delayed 14A.

via @TMTBreakout. https://t.co/lJLCqZ2r3n
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The Transcript
RT @TheTranscript_: $NOW ServiceNow CEO tells investors the M&A panic is over and it’s time to return that lost $10B in market cap.

"I noticed that we lost about $10B in market cap on that because of the worry. So now the worry is gone, you can give us back to market cap. And no, we're not going after anything large"
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The Transcript
ServiceNow executives have cancelled their planned stock sales, and the CEO is buying $3M worth of shares

$NOW: +1% today https://t.co/vTRTq9uT8b

$NOW ServiceNow CEO tells investors the M&A panic is over and it’s time to return that lost $10B in market cap.

"I noticed that we lost about $10B in market cap on that because of the worry. So now the worry is gone, you can give us back to market cap. And no, we're not going after anything large" - The Transcript
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