produce

1. To bring forth, give rise to, or yield a good through a natural process, as opposed to make or manufacture. Produced goods are usually fungible even if sold under different names or trademarks.

2. Fruits and vegetables as distinguished from corn, rice, wheat, and other grains and staple crops.

There is only one combination of facts that makes it advisable for a company to repurchase its shares: First, the company has available funds -- cash plus sensible borrowing capacity -- beyond the near-term needs of the business and, second, finds its stock selling in the market below its intrinsic value, conservatively-calculated. To this we add a caveat: Shareholders should have been supplied all the information they need for estimating that value. Otherwise, insiders could take advantage of their uninformed partners and buy out their interests at a fraction of true worth. We have, on rare occasions, seen that happen. Usually, of course, chicanery is employed to drive stock prices up, not down.
The business "needs" that I speak of are of two kinds: First, expenditures that a company must make to maintain its competitive position, and second, optional outlays, aimed at business growth, that management expects will produce more than a dollar of value for each dollar spent.

• Does the business scale?