Stock buybacks can keep surging next year after a potential record for 2021, analysts say
The surge in stock buybacks this year may surpass the pre-pandemic record — and U.S. companies could pick up the pace of share repurchases even more in 2022, according to market analysts.
Buyback volume may rise to around $848 billion in 2021, which would exceed the record $806 billion seen in 2018, according to preliminary estimates from Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst with S&P Dow Jones Indices. Companies in the S&P 500 index repurchased more than $234 billion worth of shares in the third quarter, he said by phone, topping the previous record set in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Yet the market expects buybacks next year can rise much higher and “well beyond” the record pace seen during the third quarter, according to a note earlier this week from Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. “Companies are not buying anywhere near as much stock as they can.”
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