If the company’s share price has fallen in recent periods, a buyback can signal to the market that the stocks are potentially undervalued and therefore raise share prices. Company A then decides to buy back 10 million shares, which are now treasury stock. To reduce its supply of outstanding stock, a company may make a tender offer to current shareholders, or a bid to purchase a shareholder’s stock. Since shareholders can reject this offer, the company can also try to purchase shares on the open market. Companies buy back their stock to boost their share price, among other reasons.
Whether APIC is credited or debited with the par value method depends on how large the credit is compared to the debit. If you don’t want to raise capital by trading treasury stock on the market, you may be able to get the capital you need from a business loan instead. Keep in mind that a company buying back its own stock is different from a corporation retiring shares outstanding. Kraft sold undervalued stock to pay for its overvalued $19.6 billion acquisition. On the cash flow statement, the share repurchase is reflected as a cash outflow (“use” of cash).
Duratech will pay the market price of the stock at $25 per share times the 800 shares it purchased, for a total cost of $20,000. The following journal entry is recorded for the purchase of the treasury stock under the cost method. The company can either retire (cancel) the shares (however, retired shares are not listed as treasury stock on the company’s financial statements) or hold the shares for later resale. Accompanying the decrease in the number of shares outstanding is a reduction in company assets, in particular, cash assets, which are used to buy back shares.
Just after the issuance of both investments, the stockholders’ equity account, Common Stock, reflects the total par value of the issued stock; in this case, $3,000 + $12,000, or a total of $15,000. The amounts received in excess of the par value are accumulated in the Additional Paid-in Capital from Common Stock account in the amount of $5,000 + $160,000, or $165,000. A portion of the equity section of the balance sheet just after the two stock issuances by La Cantina will reflect the Common Stock account stock issuances as shown in Figure 14.4. The other account represents the money the company spent to buy back its shares, which is the treasury section. Therefore, a $10 balance on the treasury account would offset $10 of common stock.
The Cash account increases with a debit for $45 times 1,000 shares, or $45,000. The Preferred Stock account increases for the par value of the preferred stock, $8 times 1,000 shares, or $8,000. The excess of the issue price of $45 per share over the $8 par value, times the 1,000 shares, is credited as an increase to Additional Paid-in Capital from Preferred Stock, resulting in a credit of $37,000. For example, if a company sold stock with a 10-cent par value for $15, then the common stock would increase by 5 cents. If the company resells its treasury stocks for more than what was originally paid, the excess would go into paid-in capital.
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There are several reasons why companies reacquire issued and outstanding shares from the investors. Also known as the acid-test or the liquidity ratio, this is a measurement of a company’s ability to cover its short-term liabilities. A ratio greater than one indicates that the company has enough in cash and cash equivalents to pay its obligations and cover its operations. Figure 14.5 shows what the equity section of the balance sheet will reflect after the preferred stock is issued. Additionally, buying back shares can be a defensive strategy if the company is a target for a takeover.
Assume that on August 1, La Cantina sells another 100 shares of its treasury stock, but this time the selling price is $28 per share. The Cash Account is increased by the selling price, $28 per share times the number of shares resold, 100, for a total debit to Cash of virtual bookkeeping services $2,800. The Treasury Stock account decreases by the cost of the 100 shares sold, 100 × $25 per share, for a total credit of $2,500, just as it did in the sale at cost. The difference is recorded as a credit of $300 to Additional Paid-in Capital from Treasury Stock.
However, any money that a company owes on that debt within the next year will be included here. For example, say that a company takes out a loan that’s 10 years long. The company doesn’t have to pay the full loan in the upcoming year, but it does have to pay a certain amount. Not all companies will list this liability and some will lump it with the current debt that we talked about in the previous section.
The remaining shares will (at least temporarily) fetch a higher price than their current market price. These shares may be re-issued in the future, unlike retired shares that no longer have value. If shares no longer have value, a company removes them from its balance sheet. The cash account is credited for the amount paid to purchase the treasury stock. In comparison, non-retired treasury stock is held by the company for the time being, with the optionality to be re-issued at a later date if deemed appropriate. To calculate the fully diluted number of shares outstanding, the standard approach is the treasury stock method (TSM).
Because shares held in treasury are not outstanding, each treasury stock transaction will impact the number of shares outstanding. When stock is repurchased for retirement, the stock must be removed from the accounts so that it is not reported on the balance sheet. The balance sheet will appear as if the stock was never issued in the first place. When a company issues new stock for cash, assets increase with a debit, and equity accounts increase with a credit.
When the market is not performing well, the company’s stock may be undervalued – buying back the shares will usually boost the share price and benefit the remaining shareholders. Treasury stock is one of the various types of equity accounts reported on the balance sheet statement under the stockholders’ equity section as a contra-equity account. Both methods decrease the total shareholders’ equity by $50,000, bringing ABC Company’s equity accounts down to $450,000.
Financial advisors often have a proficiency in evaluating balance sheets if you’d like to include this kind of fundamental analysis in your investing plan. This tells you how much of a company’s financing comes from investors versus creditors. Investors generally consider companies with higher ratios (that is, with more financing from debt) as riskier investments. Unlike equity, a company needs to pay back all of the debt that it owes. So the more debt a company has, the more it has to make just to pay back that debt.