A treasury stock or reacquired stock is stock which is bought back by the issuing company, reducing the amount of outstanding stock on the open market ("open market" including insiders' holdings). Stock repurchases are used as a tax efficient method to put cash into shareholders' hands, rather than paying

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-i ...

s, in jurisdictions that treat

capital gains Capital gain is an economic concept defined as the profit earned on the sale of an asset which has increased in value over the holding period. An asset may include tangible property, a car, a business, or intangible property such as shares ...

more favorably. Sometimes, companies repurchase their stock when they feel that it is undervalued on the open market. Other times, companies repurchase their stock to reduce dilution from incentive compensation plans for employees. Another reason for stock repurchase is to protect the company against a takeover threat.Robert T. Sprouse, "Accounting for treasury stock transactions: Prevailing practices and new statutory provisions." ''Columbia Law Review'' 59.6 (1959): 882-900
online
/ref> The United Kingdom equivalent of treasury stock as used in the United States is treasury share. Treasury stocks in the UK refers to government bonds or

gilts Gilt-edged securities are bonds issued by the UK Government. The term is of British origin, and then referred to the debt securities issued by the Bank of England on behalf of His Majesty's Treasury, whose paper certificates had a gilt (or gilde ...

Limitations of treasury stock

*Treasury stock is not entitled to receive a

*Treasury stock has no voting rights *Total treasury stock can not exceed the maximum proportion of total capitalization specified by law in the relevant country When shares are repurchased, they may either be canceled or held for reissue. If not canceled, such shares are referred to as treasury shares. Technically, a repurchased share is a company's own share that has been bought back after having been issued and fully paid. The possession of treasury shares does not give the company the right to vote, to exercise preemptive rights as a shareholder, to receive cash dividends, or to receive assets on company liquidation. Treasury shares are essentially the same as unissued capital, which is not classified as an asset on the balance sheet, as an asset should have probable future economic benefits. Treasury shares simply reduce ordinary share capital.

Buying back shares

Benefits

In an

efficient market The efficient-market hypothesis (EMH) is a hypothesis in financial economics that states that asset prices reflect all available information. A direct implication is that it is impossible to "beat the market" consistently on a risk-adjusted bas ...

, a company buying back its stock should have no effect on its price per share valuation. If the market fairly prices a company's shares at $50/share, and the company buys back 100 shares for $5,000, it now has $5,000 less cash but there are 100 fewer shares outstanding; the net effect should be that the underlying value of each share is unchanged. Additionally, buying back shares will improve price/earnings ratios due to the reduced number of shares (and unchanged earnings) and improve earnings per share ratios due to fewer shares outstanding (and unchanged earnings). If the market is not efficient, the company's shares may be underpriced. In that case a company can benefit its other shareholders by buying back shares. If a company's shares are overpriced, then a company is actually hurting its remaining shareholders by buying back stock.

Incentives

One other reason for a company to buy back its own stock is to reward holders of

stock options In finance, an option is a contract which conveys to its owner, the ''holder'', the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific quantity of an underlying asset or instrument at a specified strike price on or before a specified da ...

. Call option holders are hurt by dividend payments, since, typically, they are not eligible to receive them. A share buyback program ''may'' increase the value of remaining shares (if the buyback is executed when shares are under-priced); if so, call option holders benefit. A dividend payment short term ''always'' decreases the value of shares after the payment, so, for stocks with regularly scheduled dividends, on the day shares go ex-dividend, call option holders ''always'' lose whereas put option holders benefit. This does not apply to unscheduled (special) dividends since the strike prices of options are typically adjusted to reflect the amount of the special dividend. Finally, if the sellers into a corporate buyback are actually the call option holders themselves, they may directly benefit from temporary unrealistically favorable pricing.

After buyback

The company can either retire (cancel) the shares (however, retired shares are not listed as treasury stock on the company's financial statements) or hold the shares for later resale. Buying back stock reduces the number of outstanding shares. Accompanying the decrease in the number of shares outstanding is a reduction in company assets, in particular, cash assets, which are used to buy back shares.

Accounting for treasury stock

On the balance sheet, treasury stock is listed under

shareholders' equity In finance, equity is ownership of assets that may have debts or other liabilities attached to them. Equity is measured for accounting purposes by subtracting liabilities from the value of the assets. For example, if someone owns a car worth $2 ...

as a negative number. It is commonly called "treasury stock" or "equity reduction". That is, treasury stock is a

contra account Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit en ...

to shareholders' equity. One way of accounting for treasury stock is with the cost method. In this method, the paid-in capital account is reduced in the balance sheet when the treasury stock is bought. When the treasury stock is sold back on the open market, the paid-in capital is either debited or credited if it is sold for less or more than the initial cost respectively. Another common way for accounting for treasury stock is the

par value Par value, in finance and accounting, means stated value or face value. From this come the expressions at par (at the par value), over par (over par value) and under par (under par value). Bonds A bond selling at par is priced at 100% of face valu ...

method. In the par value method, when the stock is purchased back from the market, the books will reflect the action as a retirement of the shares. Therefore, common stock is debited and treasury stock is credited. However, when the treasury stock is resold back to the market the entry in the books will be the same as the cost method. In either method, any transaction involving treasury stock cannot increase the amount of

retained earnings The retained earnings (also known as plowback) of a corporation is the accumulated net income of the corporation that is retained by the corporation at a particular point of time, such as at the end of the reporting period. At the end of that peri ...

. If the treasury stock is sold for more than cost, then the paid-in capital treasury stock is the account that is increased, not

. In auditing

financial statements Financial statements (or financial reports) are formal records of the financial activities and position of a business, person, or other entity. Relevant financial information is presented in a structured manner and in a form which is easy to un ...

, it is a common practice to check for this error to detect possible attempts to "cook the books".

United States regulations

In the United States, buybacks are covered by multiple laws under the auspices of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

United Kingdom regulations

In the UK, the

Companies Act 1955 A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

disallowed companies from holding their own shares. However, the

Companies Act 1985 The Companies Act 1985 (c. 6) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, enacted in 1985, which enabled companies to be formed by registration, and set out the responsibilities of companies, their ...

later repealed this.