DAX companies want to buy back their own shares on the stock market for a record 54.6 billion euros and have launched corresponding buyback programs. This year alone, shares worth 26 billion euros are likely to be taken off the market.
This is according to calculations by the Handelsblatt Research Institute. This is based on announcements made by the DAX companies and their recently presented balance sheets for the past financial year.
23 of the 40 DAX companies are currently acquiring their own shares or intend to do so in the coming months. 16 intend to spend one billion euros or more, with Deutsche Post $DHL (-0,63%)Siemens $SIE (-0,29%) and Siemens Energy $ENR (+3,38%) with six billion euros each and SAP $SAP (-1,28%) with ten billion euros.
"The high share buyback programs, together with the continued high dividends, are an important basis for the Dax remaining a promising investment despite difficult geopolitical conditions," predicts Commerzbank analyst Andreas Hürkamp.
No wonder buybacks are popular with investors: The programs tighten the supply of shares. This means that future profits and dividends are spread over fewer shares. Both effects usually drive up the share price.
However, share buybacks are controversial. They reduce companies' liquidity, which could soon be needed in view of the market turmoil caused by the war in the Middle East and the resulting threat of earnings losses.
Apple is the world's largest buyback buyer $AAPL (+0,26%). The iPhone specialist spent 96.7 billion dollars on the purchase of its own shares in the last four quarters, compared to 755 billion dollars in the last ten years. Since 2013, when Apple acquired its own shares on a large scale for the first time, its share portfolio has fallen by 44 percent, according to calculations by Handelsblatt.
A study conducted by US investment bank Goldman Sachs last fall shows that shares in companies that regularly buy up a large number of their own shares perform better. According to the study, shares in S&P 500 companies that have reduced their number of shares by four percent per year have outperformed the overall market by an average of three percentage points per year since 2012.
Goldman Sachs refers to such intensive buybacks as "buyback aristocrats" - in reference to the so-called "dividend aristocrats". These are companies that have increased their dividends for at least 25 years. In addition to Apple, the buyback aristocrats include the food group Mondelez $MDLZ (+0,06%)the healthcare specialist McKesson, the insurer Loews and the financial companies Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Visa $V (+0,6%)Mastercard $MA (+0,68%) and American Express $AXP (-0,79%).
However, the financial structure of such companies is not improving. It is true that earnings per share increase following the withdrawal of repurchased shares. "At the same time, however, the risk structure of the company changes," analyzes balance sheet expert Philipp Immenkötter from asset manager Flossbach von Storch in a detailed analysis of share buybacks.
He argues that the acquisition of shares reduces the company's liquidity and increases its debt as equity decreases. "Both effects increase the risk and thus depress the valuation," explains Immmenkötter. "Ultimately, the effects balance each other out so that this cannot result in a price increase."
However, a share buyback will result in a sustained price increase if the buyback leads to a better assessment of the share by the market. This can happen, for example, when companies buy back their own shares if they are undervalued - or when companies buy back their own shares because they generate high profits and want to return these to shareholders not only through dividends but also through share buybacks.
Source text (excerpt) & graphics: Handelsblatt, 25.03.2026
