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Buybacks have been hugely popular in recent year but companies have pulled in their horns as the global economy turns
Irish companies haven't been on to their brokers as much in 2026 looking to buy back their own shares. Photograph: Rehan Khan/EPAchief executive Stephen Garvey had little time for hand-wringing on Thursday as the home builder reported a sharp earnings drop for the first six months of the year, having told investors in March that revenues and profits would be more heavily weighted to the second half than usual as it ramped up work on sites bought in 2024.
While completions fell by almost a third to 629 units during the first six months, he upgraded the group’s full-year target by 5.5 per cent to 2,900 – which would see it pip rivalown implied goal by 100 units to retain its crown as the country’s largest home builder for a third straight year.
“We expect the group will be highly cash generative in the second half, supporting further returns to shareholders,” he said. Ryanair investors say yes to Michael O’Leary’s €150m pay dealState wants us to be tech-savvy, but the problem is we do not trust technology Glenveagh and Cairn – which unveiled a new €50 million stock repurchase plan last week – are rare beasts among Irish public limited companies this year in upping their buyback programmes.
Share buybacks have run out of steam globally in 2026, after corporates forked out a record amount of about $1.5 trillion in 2025 buying back and cancelling their own stock. Cash has become more precious as conflict in the Middle East has restored inflation, pushing up borrowing costs in debt markets – and as global trade uncertainty prevails amid the Trump administration 2.0’s protectionist policies. Big Tech has an especially expensive alternative: an intensifyingarms race.
Still, analysts ranging from London-based investment group Janus Henderson to JP Morgan estimate that the global decline in stock repurchases will be marginal this year. The group – comprising Irish companies listed in Dublin and London, along with a handful that have shifted their primary listings to New York in recent years – is on course to slash buyback spending by more than half in 2026.
After splurging a record €7.2 billion on their own shares in 2025, capping three bumper years of buy-backs, they are expected to spend just under €3.5 billion this year, according to Irish Times calculations. The figures include estimates for the remainder of this year for companies that have live buyback programmes scheduled to run into 2027. The Irish figures are skewed by some very large programmes in recent times that have been pulled back for various reasons..
The building materials and services giant spent $1.2 billion buying back shares last year, leaving it in second place on the list. However, it put repurchases on pause in June after finding a better near-term use for its resources: a deal to buy US peer Arcosa in a deal worth $8.5 billion, which would make it the Irish group’s largest purchase to date. It had spent $700 million on buybacks in 2026 up to that point.
AIB tops the charts for both years, but reduced its spend by 17 per cent to €1 billion in 2026. The €1.2 billion dished out last year was used to buy back shares owned by the Government and accelerate its return to full private ownership. Bank of Ireland committed to spending €560 million on stock repurchases this year, down from €590 million.
Nevertheless, both hiked their regular dividends and are expected to continue to use buy-backs in the coming years to distribute surplus capital to investors. Gambling group Flutter Entertainment authorised a $5 billion buyback scheme in 2024 to run over a number of years. It spent $1 billion on the programme in 2025, but hit the brakes in May after buying back $250 million of shares in the first few months of the year.
The pause comes as Flutter’s shares have tumbled 66 per cent over the past 12 months, amid mounting competitive pressure in the US from prediction markets. Last month, as it cut its full-year profit forecast and announced the departure of chief executive Peter Jackson, the company said it was prioritising “investment in our core business and strategic initiatives, including prediction markets, while maintaining a clear focus on deleveraging”.
Investors may have to wait a while for Flutter to fire up the buyback machine again. Fellow New York-listed Icon, which runs clinical trials for drugmakers working on new treatments, has gone from buying back $750 million of its shares last year to sticking to the sidelines so far in 2026 after identifying accounting issues – prompting it to delay the publication of its annual report and restate revenue figures for 2023 and 2024.
Still, the company indicated in July that it was keen to get back to repurchases. Buybacks can be an efficient way of returning excess cash to shareholders, especially if boards believe companies’ shares are trading cheaply and offer greater value than pursuing deals. Using them instead of dividends to return surplus cash can avoid the risk of setting unsustainable expectations for dividends.
However, they can also artificially boost earnings per share, a key metric used by companies for deciding executive bonus pots. They can also, in some cases, signal a lack of growth ideas or ambition – or increase financial risk if funded by debt. Ryanair, Glanbia, Kerry and Grafton have all scaled back repurchases this year.
Irish Continental Group went from buying back almost €98 million of shares in 2025 to doing nothing this year, before announcing in July that it had agreed to sell itself to management. DCC returned £700 million to shareholders last year after selling its healthcare division. It is also the subject of a takeover offer – from US investment firms KKR and Energy Capital Partners – and has been absent from the buyback market this year.
Malin Corporation, the life sciences investment company, has been using share buybacks to return the proceeds from asset sales to shareholders since 2021, effectively putting itself on a path towards extinction. Donegal Investment Group is doing similar.this year, saying explicitly last month that it is focusing for now on “potential opportunities” in its acquisition pipeline, after spending €149 million on its own shares in 2025. Dyson CameraJet review: Would you pay €480 for a camera-enabled water-jetting toothbrush?
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