Strategy Repurchased 2,068,459 STRC Shares for $204.9 Million in One Week
Key Facts
Strategy repurchased 2,068,459 shares of its STRC preferred stock for $204.9 million from Oct. 19 to 25, 2026, according to a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 26. The company used the full amount from its U.S. dollar cash balance to fund the transaction. In the same week, Strategy neither bought nor sold bitcoin, and did not sell shares through its at-the-market offering program. These facts are limited to the stated period, while the transaction reflects the allocation of cash to preferred stock repurchases in a week when the company made no bitcoin transactions. A week earlier, Strategy had announced the purchase of 267 bitcoin and the repurchase of $193 million in STRC shares.
After the weekly transaction, $956.8 million remained available under the preferred stock repurchase program, according to the Oct. 26 filing. A further $1 billion remained available under the MSTR share repurchase authorization, and the company had not repurchased any of those shares as of Oct. 25. Strategy had increased its digital credit securities repurchase program to $3 billion on Oct. 19, after launching it in June with an initial $1 billion authorization. At the program's launch, the company said buying shares at a significant discount to their stated value could reduce expected annual dividends and strengthen credit quality. In its third-quarter results, it said it had repurchased 20,980,508 STRC shares from the start of the year through Oct. 25, at a cost of about $2.04 billion and an average price of $97.39 per share, a discount of about 2.6% to the stated value of $100.
Strategy used U.S. dollar cash to fund the transaction, while its cash balance stood at $242.4 million on Oct. 25, alongside a $4.83 billion dollar reserve. The company says the reserve is allocated to supporting preferred stock dividends and interest on outstanding debt, while U.S. dollar cash is available for broader purposes, including bitcoin purchases and capital management. The company estimated that its cash and reserve balances together provide about 3.4 years of coverage for preferred stock dividends and interest on debt. From Oct. 1 to 23, Strategy added about $58.7 million in net proceeds from MSTR share sales through its at-the-market offering program, after recording about $5.41 billion in net proceeds in the third quarter. This places the repurchase in the context of the company's dollar balances and share issuance proceeds disclosed in its filings.
Strategy's net income in the third quarter of 2026 was $19.53 billion, compared with $2.79 billion in the same period of 2025, and diluted earnings per share were $44.75, versus $8.42. Net income attributable to common shareholders reached $19.12 billion after accounting for $419.6 million in preferred stock dividends; in the third quarter of 2025, the corresponding figures were attributable net income of $2.65 billion and dividends of $139.9 million. The company attributed operating income of $20.91 billion to a similar gain on its digital assets, compared with operating income and a digital asset gain of $3.89 billion a year earlier. By contrast, annual revenue fell 3% to $125.4 million from $128.7 million, and gross profit was $89.6 million, with a 71% margin. The company said MSTR shares rose 76% in the third quarter, compared with a 43% gain in bitcoin over the same quarter.
As of Oct. 25, Strategy held 848,517 bitcoin, acquired at a total cost of $64.02 billion and an average cost of $75,446 per bitcoin. In the week ended on that date, MSTR shares fell 7.84%, according to The Block, as the company paused bitcoin purchases and sales. The company kept the STRC dividend rate at 12%, saying this supports trading near its stated value of $100. In its results, it said daily STRC dividends will begin on Nov. 1, 2026, following shareholder approval of the change on Oct. 28. Daily dividends for the STRF, STRK and STRD classes will begin on Jan. 1, 2027.