Wall Street analysts are gloomy about corporate performance in the second quarter, predicting that profits fell 6.5 percent. If companies weren’t buying so much of their own stock, the drop could be much worse: 9 percent. “It makes you rethink a lot of things,” says Kevin Mahn, president of Hennion & Walsh Asset Management. “We question how much earnings growth has taken place because of actual sales growth and consumer spending—and how much is attributable to buybacks.”

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