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Exclusive Story 3 Major Buybacks Just Dropped—Here's the Signal Investors SeeAuthor: Leo Miller. Published: 2/23/2026. 
Key Points - Walmart, Lyft, and Equitable each announced sizable repurchase authorizations, signaling continued focus on per-share value creation.
- Lyft’s buyback capacity is the most aggressive relative to market cap, while Walmart’s is the largest in absolute dollars.
- Equitable pairs buybacks with a dividend and a rebound narrative, with analysts still forecasting meaningful upside.
- Special Report: [Sponsorship-Ad-6-Format3]
Several major companies recently expanded their share repurchase authorizations, giving them fresh capacity to retire stock in 2026. In a market where buybacks heavily influence per-share results, that firepower can provide a meaningful tailwind—especially when growth is uneven and investors are scrutinizing capital allocation. The headlines span three very different corners of the market: a consumer staples heavyweight, a beaten-down ride-hailing name, and a financial services firm overseeing more than $1 trillion in assets. The authorizations also vary widely in scale, with one new program totaling nearly 18% of the company's market value. Walmart Announces Biggest Buyback Ever as Shares Climb Silver: 20% + 68%
Tim Plaehn just found a Silver ETF that delivers monthly income (up to 20% in annual distributions) plus share appreciation (68% in 5 months). The precious metal has become one of the best investments for growth AND income right now. Click here and start to collect in the next 30 days. First up is retail behemoth Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT). Walmart delivered an impressive performance in 2025, with a total return of approximately 24%. Even after a dip following its latest earnings release, the stock is still up roughly 10% in 2026 as some investors rotate into consumer staples early in the year. Despite the recent pullback, Walmart's financials remain strong, driven largely by its e-commerce push. E-commerce sales rose by 24% year-over-year last quarter and reached a record high 23% of revenue. Advertising revenue grew 37% and membership income rose 15%—all important drivers of margin improvement for the company. To cap a strong year, Walmart announced a $30 billion share buyback authorization, its largest to date. The program is equal to approximately 3.1% of Walmart's roughly $980 billion market capitalization. That gives the company substantial capacity to reduce its outstanding share count and supports earnings-per-share growth. Notably, Walmart's shares outstanding fell by about 0.8% in 2025. Walmart also announced a 5% increase to its quarterly dividend, underscoring its two-pronged approach to returning capital to shareholders. The stock's indicated dividend yield now sits near 0.8%. LYFT Holds Large Buyback Capacity as Shares Get Hit in 2026 Ride-hailing company LYFT (NASDAQ: LYFT) posted a strong return of about 50% in 2025. In 2026, however, the stock has fallen more than 25%, largely because the company's latest earnings report sent shares down more than 20% in two days. Revenue of $1.59 billion—a 3% year-over-year increase—missed expectations of $1.76 billion. Still, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 37% to $154 million and comfortably beat estimates. LYFT's Q1 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $120 million to $140 million, however, was viewed as weak by investors. LYFT also announced a $1 billion share repurchase plan. With a market capitalization of about $5.6 billion, that authorization equals roughly 17.8% of the company's value. The firm accelerated buybacks in 2025, spending around $500 million on repurchases—about ten times what it spent in 2024—which helped its outstanding share count fall for the first time over a full year. LYFT's shares outstanding dropped roughly 3.7% in 2025, supporting per-share metrics, and the new authorization suggests that trend could continue. EQH Expects to Rebound in 2026, Announces $1B Buyback Finally, financial services company Equitable (NYSE: EQH) posted a modest total return of about 3% in 2025 and is down more than 5% in 2026. The firm offers insurance, annuities and retirement planning and manages and administers roughly $1.1 trillion in assets—a figure that rose by 10% in 2025. Equitable struggled with results over the past year, missing adjusted EPS estimates for five consecutive quarters and sales estimates on three of those occasions. After adjusted EPS rose just 1% in 2025, the company expects a stronger 2026 and said it sees EPS growth coming in ahead of its long-term target range of 12% to 15% (source). The company also authorized a $1 billion buyback program, equal to about 8% of its roughly $12.5 billion market capitalization. Equitable used weakness in its share price to buy back approximately $1.45 billion of stock in 2025, which reduced its outstanding share count by about 9% for the year. That track record and the new authorization support continued capital returns. The stock also carries an indicated dividend yield near 2.4%. Analysts See Upside for EQH Overall, WMT, LYFT and EQH appear positioned to continue reducing share counts in 2026. Among them, Equitable offers the most upside potential according to Wall Street analysts: the MarketBeat consensus price target of just over $62 implies roughly 41% upside. The consensus price target for LYFT implies a similar increase, though price targets fell notably after the company's latest report.
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