Buyback
Definition · Level 0 · Market basics
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A company purchasing its own shares, cutting shares outstanding: a way to return cash without paying a dividend. It lifts earnings per share only if the earnings yield on the shares bought beats the after-tax cost of the cash used, and creates value only if bought below intrinsic value.
Example
Net income flat at $500M, shares cut from 250M to 225M: EPS rises from $2.00 to $2.22.
Where Tradecraft teaches it
Level 0 · Market basics, in the lesson “Shares, dividends & splits”: Share counts, market cap tiers, the dividend calendar, splits and buybacks.
Related terms
- Blue chipA large, long-established, financially solid company with a record of steady earnings and often dividends: a household name investors treat as a…
- DividendCash (occasionally extra shares) a company pays its owners out of profits, declared by the board per share: usually quarterly in the US, yearly or…
- Dividend yieldAnnual dividends per share ÷ share price, as a percentage; annualize a quarterly payout first (× 4).
- Ex-dividend dateFirst day a stock trades without the upcoming payout: buyers from then on don’t get it, so the stock typically opens lower by about that amount.
- FloatShares actually available for public trading: shares outstanding minus insider, strategic and locked-up holdings.
- Large cap / mid cap / small capSize tiers by market value, rough convention: above ~$10B / ~$2B–$10B / ~$300M–$2B.