Forget the dividend but how about a buyback?

@shamall posted recently about SH voting at the AGM in favour of a dividend. I suggested that the majority SH's (OG and Petrochina) would probably not be looking for a dividend but suggested that a buyback might be an option.

Certainly buybacks in O&G have increased significantly this year. A recent article in the NY Times highlighted that billions of dollars are being spent by the major Oil companies doing just that. The five majors have spent over $20bn in the 1st half year and are expected to spend even more in the second half. (NY Times 22/7/22) Locally Santos announced their $250m buyback in April.

CUE has built solid revenue streams across multiple markets and should be able to maintain profits over at least the next 3 years. With an EPS of 2.3c and a current SP of 7.1c an investment in itself looks attractive financially.

A comparison of the Share Registry between 2021-2022 IMO highlights that most investors in CUE would see a buyback as a worthwhile investment.

* A total of 11 of the top twenty SH have either maintained or increased their holding this year.
* The average SH of investors holding over 100k but outside the top twenty shares has increased by 11% (from 311k to 345k)
* The number of individual SH over 100k has reduced (from 329 to 310) while their collective SH has increased (from 90.85% to 91.86%)

While there will always be some SH exiting and others entering the overall trend is that over the year there are less total investors collectively holding more shares. In effect SH have already commenced individually buying back shares. A buyback by CUE itself would be an extension of this trend.