LIVE MARKETS-US corporate buybacks set record level in Q1 - S&P Dow Jones
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US CORPORATE BUYBACKS SET RECORD LEVEL IN Q1 - S&P DOW JONES
S&P 500 companies set a quarterly record in share buybacks in the first quarter of 2025, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a report Wednesday.
He writes that repurchases totalled $293.5 billion in the first quarter, surpassing the previous record buybacks of $281.0 billion in the first quarter of 2022.
The first-quarter buybacks were up 20.6% from the fourth quarter's total, he adds.
The record buybacks helped earnings per share for the quarter by reducing share count, he notes.
In addition, 384 companies reported buybacks of at least $5 million for the first quarter, up from 342 in fourth quarter of 2024 and 352 in the first quarter of 2024, while 402 companies did some buybacks for the first quarter of 2025 versus 399 in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 380 in the first quarter of 2024, Silverblatt writes.
"For the second quarter, given the market turmoil, volatility and uncertainty, buybacks appeared to be limited to those issues with secure cash-flows, with the shares purchased intended to be used for employee options, compared to discretionary buybacks used for share count reduction," he writes.
(Caroline Valetkevitch)
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