Samsung Electronics confirmed last week that its Board of Directors had approved a shareholder return plan that would see the company return up to $80 billion to its stockholders this year. One would assume that investors would love the headline number but that doesn't appear to be the case, as the company's stock opened sharply lower today. Investor expectations haven't been metThe shareholder return plan Samsung Electronics announced last week was the largest not just in its own history but the largest ever of any South Korean company. The $80 billion plan is roughly five times the company's own previous record high return plan set in 2020.One of the first plans in the step is to pay a special dividend of 30 trillion won or $21.6 billion in the third quarter of this year, which works out to roughly 5,000 won or $3.6 per share, over 13x the dividend of 374 won or $0.24 per share paid in the second quarter.Market analysts say that the plan has likely fallen short of investors' expectations. Some estimates had projected that the company could return as much as $144 billion through special dividends and buybacks. That's obviously not happening. Samsung hasn't clearly laid out the specifics of the share buyback or cancellation plan, which it said would be laid out at the board meeting in January 2027 once the full year results are in. Investors don't seem to be happy about Samsung's commitment to return 50% of its free cash flow while rivals like SanDisk and Micron have committed to return 100% of free cash flow to shareholders.