Buying back more stock than the business generated
357 companies spent more on share repurchases than they generated in free cash flow in their most recent annual filing.
Buybacks out of surplus cash are capital return. Buybacks beyond it are financed, by drawing down the balance sheet, issuing debt, or selling assets. The transaction looks identical from the outside; the funding is what differs.
In a single year this is unremarkable. Cash generation is lumpy, buyback programmes are authorised in advance and executed steadily, and a company with a large cash pile deliberately reducing it is doing exactly what it said it would. Sustained over several years it is a different matter, because it means the share count is being reduced by leverage rather than by performance.
For financial companies the comparison is weaker still: free cash flow as defined here does not describe a bank usefully, and their capital returns are governed by regulatory requirements rather than by this arithmetic.
What this is usually called
Total shareholder return, shareholder yield and total payout all describe dividends plus buybacks together. When the two exceed free cash flow the payout is described as debt-funded or as a return of capital rather than a return on capital. The cash-flow statement line is payments for repurchase of common stock, which includes shares bought to offset employee issuance as well as discretionary buying.
The question, as a query
The table is generated by running this against the filings held today. The syntax is the screener's, so the query is a starting point rather than a result.
repurchases > fcf AND POSITIVE(repurchases)| Company | Revenue | Net income | Gross margin | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C BankCITIGROUP INC | $85.22B | $14.31B | Unavailable | -$74.15B |
| HCAHCA Healthcare, Inc. | $75.60B | $6.78B | Unavailable | $7.69B |
| BGBunge Global SA | $70.33B | $816.00M | 4.8% | -$879.00M |
| ORCLORACLE CORP | $67.36B | $17.09B | Unavailable | -$23.69B |
| GS Broker-dealerGOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC | $58.28B | $17.18B | Unavailable | -$47.22B |
| CHTRCHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, INC. /MO/ | $54.77B | $4.99B | Unavailable | $4.42B |
| MOH InsurerMOLINA HEALTHCARE, INC. | $45.43B | $472.00M | 13.1% | -$636.00M |
| LADLITHIA MOTORS INC | $37.63B | $819.60M | 15.2% | $5.80M |
| DHIHORTON D R INC /DE/ | $34.25B | $3.59B | 23.7% | $3.28B |
| LENLENNAR CORP /NEW/ | $34.19B | $2.08B | Unavailable | $28.18M |
| PYPLPayPal Holdings, Inc. | $33.17B | $5.23B | Unavailable | $5.56B |
| NUENUCOR CORP | $32.49B | $1.74B | 11.9% | -$188.00M |
| ARWARROW ELECTRONICS, INC. | $30.85B | $571.27M | 11.2% | -$37.20M |
| NRGNRG ENERGY, INC. | $30.71B | $864.00M | Unavailable | $766.00M |
| AVTAVNET INC | $27.63B | $334.39M | 10.4% | -$354.50M |
| ANAUTONATION, INC. | $27.63B | $649.10M | 17.9% | -$197.50M |
| MMM3M CO | $24.95B | $3.25B | 39.9% | $1.40B |
| ADBEADOBE INC. | $23.77B | $7.13B | 89.3% | $9.85B |
| GPIGROUP 1 AUTOMOTIVE INC | $22.57B | $325.20M | 16.0% | $424.50M |
| AZOAUTOZONE INC | $20.34B | $2.57B | 52.3% | $1.82B |
| LNGCheniere Energy, Inc. | $19.98B | $5.33B | Unavailable | $2.46B |
| EIXEDISON INTERNATIONAL | $19.32B | $4.46B | Unavailable | -$715.00M |
| STLDSTEEL DYNAMICS INC | $18.18B | $1.19B | 13.2% | $501.51M |
| ORLYO REILLY AUTOMOTIVE INC | $17.78B | $2.54B | 51.6% | $1.59B |
| UHSUNIVERSAL HEALTH SERVICES INC | $17.36B | $1.49B | Unavailable | $849.24M |
| FOXFox Corp | $17.13B | Unavailable | Unavailable | $1.47B |
| LPLA Broker-dealerLPL Financial Holdings Inc. | $16.99B | $863.02M | Unavailable | -$981.78M |
| FLUTFlutter Entertainment plc | $16.38B | Unavailable | 45.2% | $1.08B |
| FLRFLUOR CORP | $15.50B | -$51.00M | -0.8% | -$437.00M |
| CPCANADIAN PACIFIC KANSAS CITY LTD/CN | $15.08B | $4.14B | Unavailable | $2.21B |
| ECHOEchoStar CORP | $15.00B | -$14.50B | Unavailable | -$1.07B |
| RSRELIANCE, INC. | $14.29B | $739.40M | Unavailable | $502.50M |
| GXOGXO Logistics, Inc. | $13.18B | $32.00M | Unavailable | $110.00M |
| BALLBALL Corp | $13.16B | Unavailable | Unavailable | $788.00M |
| UNM InsurerUnum Group | $13.08B | $738.50M | Unavailable | $555.40M |
| LVSLAS VEGAS SANDS CORP | $13.02B | $1.63B | Unavailable | $1.86B |
| HLTHilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. | $12.04B | $1.46B | Unavailable | $2.03B |
| JJACOBS SOLUTIONS INC. | $12.03B | $289.34M | 24.8% | $607.47M |
| CMGCHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL INC | $11.93B | $1.54B | Unavailable | $1.45B |
| YUMCYum China Holdings, Inc. | $11.80B | $929.00M | Unavailable | $840.00M |
Showing the 40 largest by revenue of 357. Open the full list in the screener.
What this does not show
Repurchases are the cash-flow-statement figure for common stock repurchased, which includes buying back shares to offset employee issuance as well as discretionary return of capital.
The measures behind this
Common share repurchases Free cash flow Common dividends paid
Related findings
Citing this
SequelSEC, “Buying back more stock than the business generated”, 1 November 2026. https://sequelsec.com/findings/buybacks-larger-than-free-cash-flow
Figures are recomputed on every view from SEC filings, so a number quoted from this page should carry the date it was read.