How we count buybacks

Data last refreshed Oct 23, 2026 from SEC EDGAR.

Where the numbers come from

Every company in the S&P 500 files its financial statements with the SEC in machine-readable form (XBRL). We read those filings through the SEC’s public APIs twice a day. When a company files a new 10-Q or 10-K, its page updates within hours. Every figure on a company page links to the filing it came from.

What counts as a buyback

We use cash paid to repurchase common stock from the cash flow statement (PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock). If a company doesn’t tag that line, we fall back to the repurchase lines in its statement of stockholders’ equity, and say so on its page. Cash timing and trade dates can differ slightly from the equity statement.

Quarters and the last twelve months

10-Q cash flow statements are year-to-date, so a quarter is this year-to-date figure minus the previous one. The fourth quarter is the full-year 10-K figure minus the nine-month figure. “Last twelve months” is the sum of each company’s four most recent reported quarters, so it ends on a different date for companies with different fiscal years. Restated figures replace the originals.

When nothing is reported

Companies often leave a zero line out of their filings. If a company tagged repurchases before and after a gap, we treat the gap as zero. If its latest filings simply stop reporting the line, we show “none reported since” and, when the latest filing still shows the line for the prior year, we treat the current period as a confirmed zero. A few companies report buybacks only in custom fields we can’t read; their pages say so.

Buybacks minus stock pay

Companies issue new shares to employees as stock compensation. A buyback that only offsets that issuance doesn’t shrink the share count. “Net of stock pay” is buybacks minus share-based compensation expense over the same twelve months. It’s an approximation: compensation is booked at grant value, not at the price shares were later bought back.

Share count

We use the diluted weighted-average share count from the income statement. Stock splits are detected by comparing the same period across older and newer filings, and earlier counts are adjusted. Some filers tag share counts in thousands or millions by mistake; we correct values that are off by a factor of a thousand or a million from the company’s own history. A change of more than 30% in a year is flagged, because it usually comes from a merger, spin-off or share-class change.

Stock issued

Proceeds from issuing common stock and convertible or preferred stock over the last twelve months, from the cash flow statement. For most companies this is small (employee stock purchases). When it is large, the company is raising money by selling stock.

New authorizations

We search 8-K filings for share repurchase programs, read each press release, and keep only sentences that announce a new, added or expanded authorization with a dollar amount next to it. We quote that sentence exactly and link the filing. Status updates (“$X remains available”) and old news are left out. The amount is what the filing says; it is a ceiling, not a commitment to buy.

Which companies

The current S&P 500 list, matched to SEC filer IDs. Companies with two share classes in the index (such as Alphabet’s GOOGL and GOOG) appear once. When a company moves to a new SEC registrant, as ExxonMobil did in 2026, we merge the old and new filing histories.

Mistakes

Filings get restated and tags get misused, so check the linked filing before relying on a number. If you find an error, email legal@algothesis.ai and we’ll fix it. This site is not investment advice; see the terms.