buyback

noun

buy·​back ˈbī-ˌbak 

: the act or an instance of buying something back

In Boston and other cities, gun buyback programs dramatically call attention to the profusion of firearms among the young …

—Diane Weathers

Talks of a potential buyback come as Volkswagen and federal regulators discuss ways to bring the more than half-million affected Volkswagen cars in the US up to current emissions standards.

—Bryan Logan

especially : the repurchase by a corporation of shares of its own common stock usually on the open market

Most corporate buybacks involve a repurchase by a company of part of its outstanding common stock at a fixed price, which is normally sufficiently higher than the market price to attract the desired number of shares.

—Leonard Sloane

This stock buyback boom, while obscure to much of the public, has become one of the most pervasive and divisive practices in corporate America.

—Michael Kranish

Examples of buyback in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In just the last nine weeks, Stellantis has pissed away $1 billion in stock buybacks for a total of $3 billion in stock buybacks this year. —Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press, 7 Oct. 2024

Meanwhile, the buybacks continue at an insane pace. —Jim Cramer, CNBC, 6 Oct. 2024

Politics What’s on the November ballot in California? Sept. 19, 2024 The Democrat has also proposed enacting a billionaire minimum tax and quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks — something corporations did a lot of with their windfalls from the 2017 tax cuts. —Don Lee, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2024

What shocked investors the most was the RMB 500 billion fund dedicated to supporting the Mainland equity market investments, which could be increased if necessary, and RMB 300 billion to support corporate buybacks, which is unprecedented. —Brendan Ahern, Forbes, 25 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1954, in the meaning defined above

Legal Definition

buyback

noun

buy·​back ˈbī-ˌbak 

: an act or instance of buying something back

especially : the repurchase by a corporation of shares of its own common stock on the open market