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

That said, Crocs’ management is utilizing its strong profit margins to repurchase shares and reduce debt, having repaid $248 million in debt and spent $326 million on buybacks in 2024 so far, enhancing shareholder value. —Trefis Team, Forbes, 24 Dec. 2024

The company declared dividends totaling $0.26 per share during the year and repurchased 195,906 shares at an average price of $12.37 per share. —Quartz Bot, Quartz, 19 Dec. 2024

Repurchase activity had already slowed down earlier in the year with just $345 million in the second quarter, significantly lower than the $2 billion repurchased in each of the prior two quarters. —Yun Li, CNBC, 15 Dec. 2024

Applied Materials repurchased $3.8 billion of its common stock during the fiscal year and paid $1.2 billion in dividends to shareholders. —Quartz Bot, Quartz, 13 Dec. 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)