Retailers and Software Firms Split on Buybacks
Abercrombie and Snowflake spent billions on repurchases while Best Buy, Dillard's, and Victoria's Secret paused or slowed.
Coverage: 6 of 13 companies in this theme (ANF, BBY, DDS, SNOW, VSCO, WLY) — a sample, not the full set.
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and Snowflake (SNOW) spent aggressively on their own stock in the latest reporting window, while Best Buy (BBY), Dillard's (DDS), and Victoria's Secret & Co. (VSCO) cut, paused, or sat on existing authorizations. The split across six companies suggests capital-allocation confidence is not uniform even among firms with similar retail or software profiles.
Abercrombie's board approved a $1.3 billion share-repurchase program in March 2025 that replaced a prior $500 million authorization and carries no expiration date. The company bought about 5.4 million shares for about $450 million in fiscal 2025, leaving $850 million remaining under the 2025 authorization as of January 31, 2026. Free cash flow of $566.5 million and zero total debt left ample room for that remaining authorization.
Snowflake repurchased 14.8 million shares for $1.9 billion in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025, including 3.6 million shares bought from purchasers of Notes in privately negotiated transactions at $112.50 a share. Quarterly activity was intermittent: 3,214 thousand shares in March 2025 and 1,043 thousand shares in September 2025, with no purchases in the other months shown. Free cash flow of $1.20 billion and no total debt supported the program.
Best Buy's pace slowed. The retailer repurchased $273 million of common stock in fiscal 2026, down from $500 million in fiscal 2025, which the company attributed to lower repurchase volume and a lower average price per share. Free cash flow of $1.77 billion and $1.17 billion of total debt framed that decision.
Dillard's bought no shares under its May 2023 stock plan during the three and six months ended August 1, 2026, leaving $165.2 million of authorization remaining. The pause followed a sharp drop from 275,544 shares totaling $98.0 million in the three months ended May 3, 2025, to 24,469 shares totaling $9.8 million in the three months ended August 2, 2025. Free cash flow of $635.1 million and zero total debt did not translate into further buying.
Victoria's Secret purchased 2,208 thousand shares under its March 2024 Share Repurchase Program in the first quarter of 2026, after buying no shares under that program in the first three quarters of 2025. Free cash flow of $554.0 million and $975.0 million of total debt accompanied the restart. John Wiley & Sons (WLY) was among the companies covered but did not appear in the repurchase claims. The mix of large, ongoing programs against quiet authorizations is the signal: buyback confidence is company-specific, not sector-wide.