repurchase

verb

re·​pur·​chase (ˌ)rē-ˈpər-chəs How to pronounce repurchase (audio)
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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
As of December 31, 2024, the company has $790 million of shares available to repurchase under its current authorization. David Trainer, Forbes.com, 27 Mar. 2025 That could enable Capital One to repurchase $25 billion in stock over the next three years instead, equivalent to 12% of the company, analysts predicted, providing a major lift to earnings per share. Morgan Chittum, CNBC, 25 Mar. 2025 Moving from a 1- or 2-star experience to a 3-star experience boosts repurchase likelihood by 1.6 times—nearly 15% more than the lift from a 3- to 5-star jump. Blake Morgan, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025 The company has repurchased 793,411 shares under its share repurchase program at a total cost of $13.5 million, with $5.4 million remaining available for future repurchases. Quartz Intelligence Newsroom, Quartz, 20 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for repurchase

Word History

First Known Use

1533, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of repurchase was in 1533

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Cite this Entry

“Repurchase.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repurchase. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025.

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)

More from Merriam-Webster on repurchase

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