Meaning & use
stock buyback
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablebusinessfinance
A company's purchase of its own shares from investors, usually to reduce the number of shares in circulation.
Grammar: Countable: a stock buyback, several stock buybacks.
Patterns
- announce a stock buyback
- a stock buyback program
- fund a stock buyback
The board announced a $2 billion stock buyback.
A stock buyback can raise the value of the remaining shares.
Critics say the company should invest in new plants instead of spending on stock buybacks.
noununcountablebusinessfinance
The act of buying back shares, seen as a way to return cash to shareholders.
Grammar: Used without 'a' when talking about the practice in general.
Patterns
- use stock buyback to do something
- a wave of stock buyback
Stock buyback has become a popular way to return money to investors.
Analysts debated whether stock buyback helps long-term growth.
Word forms
| plural | stock buybacks |
|---|
Common combinations
- announce a stock buyback
- The firm announced a stock buyback after strong earnings.
- a stock buyback program
- The company launched a stock buyback program last spring.
- share buyback
- In Britain the same move is called a share buyback.
- fund a stock buyback
- They borrowed money to fund a stock buyback.
- a record stock buyback
- Last year saw a record stock buyback in the tech sector.
Synonyms and how they differ
- share repurchase
- More formal and neutral in tone; common in official documents and academic writing.
- share buyback
- The usual British term for exactly the same thing.
Opposites
Word family
- buyback noun
- Any situation where someone buys back something they sold.
- buy back verb
- To purchase something again from the person you sold it to.
Commonly confused: stock buyback or buyout?
stock buyback vs buyout
A buyout is when someone buys a whole company or a controlling share of it, not the company's own shares.
Practice
What does a 'stock buyback' involve?
Choose one answer.
A stock buyback is a company purchasing its own shares, which reduces the number in circulation. Selling new shares is a share issue, and buying shares in other companies is simply investing.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stock buyback”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.