ELI5, what is the buyback of shares?
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A company is usually owned by a number of people, each recording their ownership in the form of shares, but how many shares exist is actually decided by the company.
So the company can issue new shares, so that people who used to won 100% of the company between them now own 80%, because a new 20% of shares have been made that have gone to other people.
Or it can buy shares off people and make them cease to exist, which has the opposite effect:
Instead of having 1000 shares in circulation, you can buy 100 of them off shareholders.
Then you end up with 900 shares, meaning that each shareholder who refused to sell now owns more of the company proportionally than they did before, because each share is now 1/900 th of a company rather than 1/1000 th.
At the same time, this gives investors a choice; they can choose to sell their shares at the suggested price, or wait for a higher price later on as the shares grow in value, which means that giving shareholders money this way means you end up with more investors who are there long term.
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