SEC annual filings · buybacks of own shares, summed
How much do the SEC filers that give a value in US dollars spend buying back their own shares?
In 2025 (fiscal years ended by ), the 2,173 SEC filers that give a buyback figure in US dollars spent $1.1 trillion buying back their own shares.
Buybacks of own shares, each fiscal year, summed over the filers
Each column is the sum of one fiscal year, placed in the calendar year it ends in. Pointing at a column shows its year and sum. Every year is under "The numbers behind the chart".
The lineLatest:
- Buybacks of own shares, 2025$1.13T
Observed .
Right now
Buybacks of own shares, 2025: $1.1 trillion from 2,173 SEC filers.
Left out
In 2025, 78 values were left out as flagged and 44 for other reasons.
One companyOurs
In 2020 one company was more than a tenth of the sum of buybacks.
As filed
Facts as filed with the SEC, and our arithmetic on them. Not investment advice.
A company is placed in the calendar year its fiscal year ends in; a year ending in the first week of January is placed in the year before. 2025 is not final: some filers have not filed that year or have stopped filing; a value after a filer's newest revenue figure is not counted.
The number of filers differs from year to year (see the Filers column), so a sum can move because of the filers counted as well as the amounts.
A parent and a subsidiary that both file are both counted, so a subsidiary's own figures are counted again inside its parent's. A company is counted once when two filing numbers give the same figure for the same period under the same name apart from its legal form (Inc, Corp, plc); a company that also changed its name is counted under both.
A reviewed list of 65 trusts and funds whose shares trade like stocks is left out; others of the kind may still be counted. Repurchases of members' or investors' shares at par or net asset value (the Federal Home Loan Banks, non-traded REITs and funds on a reviewed list) are not counted as buybacks.
A company that files this figure under a label we do not read is not counted, so some large companies are missing.
Flagged means a check refused the value; other reasons are listed below.
Understanding the sums
Where it stands today
The 2,173 SEC filers that give a buyback figure in US dollars added up to $1.1 trillion for 2025.
How are these sums made?
The SEC filers that give a value in US dollars file reports whose figures are labelled so that a computer can read them. A sum adds the figure of every such filer that gives one for the year, after the checks.
Read more
A value counts only when it passes the SEC data's own checks and ours. Each year says how many filers it holds and how many values were left out. The latest fiscal year in the sums ended on .
The numbers behind the chart
What was the sum of buybacks in each year?16 years, newest first
| Year | Sum | Filers | Left out as flagged | Left out, other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $1.13T | 2,173 | 78 | 44 |
| 2024 | $1.00T | 2,379 | 78 | 44 |
| 2023 | $917B | 2,513 | 108 | 42 |
| 2022 | $1.11T | 2,508 | 56 | 41 |
| 2021 | $877B | 2,427 | 29 | 49 |
| 2020 | $593B | 2,423 | 39 | 42 |
| 2019 | $830B | 2,332 | 41 | 31 |
| 2018 | $859B | 2,290 | 35 | 37 |
| 2017 | $592B | 2,274 | 39 | 39 |
| 2016 | $609B | 2,401 | 46 | 34 |
| 2015 | $648B | 2,455 | 48 | 42 |
| 2014 | $665B | 2,491 | 52 | 54 |
| 2013 | $527B | 2,445 | 52 | 59 |
| 2012 | $438B | 2,398 | 52 | 47 |
| 2011 | $468B | 2,364 | 54 | 45 |
| 2010 | $299B | 1,965 | 49 | 32 |
The table scrolls sideways; the first column stays in place.
What do these sums leave out, and where are they from?Limits and source
What this number cannot tell you
- The sums cover the SEC filers that give a value in US dollars, foreign filers that report in US dollars included, not every company: a company that gives the SEC no such data is not counted, and a filer counts for a year only when it gives a value for it.
- A company that files this figure under a label we do not read is not counted, so some large companies are missing.
- A parent and a subsidiary that both file are both counted, so a subsidiary's own figures are counted again inside its parent's. A company is counted once when two filing numbers give the same figure for the same period under the same name apart from its legal form (Inc, Corp, plc); a company that also changed its name is counted under both.
- A reviewed list of 65 trusts and funds whose shares trade like stocks is left out; others of the kind may still be counted.
- Repurchases of members' or investors' shares at par or net asset value (the Federal Home Loan Banks, non-traded REITs and funds on a reviewed list) are not counted as buybacks.
- A company is placed in the calendar year its fiscal year ends in; a year ending in the first week of January is placed in the year before. A period is counted only when it is a full year of 350 to 380 days that ends within sixty days of the company's fiscal year end.
- A value is left out as flagged when a check refuses it: the SEC data's own checks, a company whose newest figure is a jump nothing confirms, a figure in the wrong scale, a profit or loss more than ten times the company's total assets, or a payment filed with a minus sign. Other values are left out when their period is not a year, when the company gives two figures for one year, when they are of a year after the company's newest revenue figure, or when the filer is on the reviewed list.
- 2025 is not final: some filers have not filed that year or have stopped filing; a value after a filer's newest revenue figure is not counted.
- The number of filers differs from year to year (see the Filers column), so a sum can move because of the filers counted as well as the amounts.
- Buybacks are the cash a filer gives as payments to buy back its own shares.
Observed .
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