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

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

Kroger’s board approved a program to repurchase up to $7.5 billion of its stock, replacing an existing $1-billion authorization. —Stan Choe, Los Angeles Times, 12 Dec. 2024

The wash rule essentially states that investors must wait 30 days to repurchase a security sold for loss, otherwise you won’t be allowed to realize those losses on your tax statement. —Zev Fima, CNBC, 11 Dec. 2024

Capitol Federal Financial repurchased 3,280,110 shares of common stock during the fiscal year at an average price of $5.87 per share. —Quartz Bot, Quartz, 27 Nov. 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)