Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -7.81% disclosed in its annual report Friday that it spent $1.3 billion to repurchase 500,000 shares during the period from Jan. 1, 2022 to Feb. 2. The repurchases were significant, because that’s the first time the ecommerce and cloud giant has bought back stock since 2012, when it spent $960 million to repurchase 5.3 million shares, despite having buyback programs in place since then. The company currently has a $5 billion repurchase program in place, that was set in February 2016. The company has never paid a dividend. Amazon shares shot up 12.1% in premarket trading, after the company reported blowout fourth-quarter earnings late Thursday. Amazon’s repurchases in January occurred as the stock tumbled 10.3% that month, the worst monthly performance since it slumped 11.1% in December 2018, while the S&P 500 SPX, -2.44% lost 5.3%. On Jan. 26, the stock closed at $2,777.45, the lowest closing price since June 2020, and 25.6% below the July 8, 2021 record close of $3,731.41.
