Samsung is cancelling $2 billion of stock to make shareholders happy

Samsung is now cancelling some of the stock that it had bought back to further boost support for the stock. The company has been buying back billions of dollars worth of its stock over the past few years amid growing calls from its shareholders for better returns.

Another $2 billion worth of stock is being repurchased

Samsung Electronics confirmed today that it's retiring $2.08 billion worth of treasury shares it had previously acquired to increase shareholder value. It also announced a plan to purchase another $2.08 billion worth of shares.

The repurchases will be made on the open-market via the Korea Exchange from February 19th to May 16, 2025. It's acquiring 48,149,247 common shares and 6,636,988 preferred shares from existing shareholders.

The idea here is simple, reduce the number of shares outstanding to hopefully increase the value of the ones left. Samsung Electronics' stock is up over 1.5% on the news of this cancellation and buyback.

Some of the shares that it acquires will be used for its employee stock compensation program while others will continue to be held in the treasury for future stabilization of the stock price.

The stock price hit a 4-year low as recently as November 2024 while SK Hynix's stock price was up nearly 30% that same year. While these corporate actions will help, investors will focus more on signs of improved fortunes for its semiconductor division and other business units before we see any significant run up to new highs.