repurchase

verb

re·​pur·​chase (ˌ)rē-ˈpər-chəs 

repurchased; repurchasing

transitive verb

: to buy (something) back or again

… some enterprises moving workloads to the cloud won't have to repurchase software they already own.

—Kurt Marko

especially, of a corporation : to purchase back (shares of one's own common stock) on the open market

The company last winter repaid $405 million of debt, repurchased $202 million in common stock and predicted that sales will rise between 3 and 5 percent this year.

—Jeremiah McWilliams

repurchase noun

plural repurchases

… pointed to the trend of share repurchases, or stock buybacks, emerging among major companies … . As they buy back millions, if not billions, of their shares, their supply of stock grows tighter … and their shareholders usually benefit.

—Elizabeth Gurdus

Examples of repurchase in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Berkshire, which repurchased $345 million of shares in the second quarter, didn’t buy back any stock during the latest selling spree. —Fred Imbert, CNBC, 4 Nov. 2024

Berkshire repurchased no stock in the third quarter. —Bill Stone, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2024

Investors will also be disappointed to learn that Berkshire didn’t repurchase any of its own shares in the quarter. —Josh Funk, Chicago Tribune, 2 Nov. 2024

Local governments will be allowed to repurchase unused land from property developers, Lan said. —Reuters, CNN, 11 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1533, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing repurchase

• repurchase agreement

Legal Definition

repurchase

1 of 2 transitive verb

re·​pur·​chase

ˌrē-ˈpər-chəs

repurchased; repurchasing

: to buy back

repurchase shares of stock

repurchase

2 of 2 noun

: the act or an instance of purchasing something again or back

specifically : a corporation's buying back of some of its stock at market price (as to increase the amount of Treasury stock or as a preliminary step to going private)