From your post.

<He would not give me a direct answer as to whether stock buybacks were taking place.>

Interesting response. The fact that the term "interpetation" gets connected to the SEC rules means they have looked at the regs, and gotten expert opinions on how to interpet them. But if the company is not buying shares based on their interpetation of the rules, why not just say so? Why beat around the bush with such a non-committal response? Would having that information give someone an unfair advantage?

But we can be assured, that if the company is buying, no way would that info be communicated to a lone sharholder. And in that case, a non-committal type response would certainly be expected. All IMHO of course. Opty