Buyback Wednesdays – Triton International Boosts Buyback by an Additional $200 Million

When I first heard about a company announcing a $50 billion buyback last week, I was shocked. That amount of money exceeds the market cap of thousands of companies in the U.S. stock market. The company announcing this massive buyback was energy giant, Exxon Mobil (XOM), who expanded its share buyback program by up to $50 billion through 2024, representing around 8% of its market cap at announcement. In contrast, when Chevron (CVX) announced a buyback earlier this year, it was for just $5 billion.

The only three companies that come close to Exxon’s announcement are Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META) with their $90 billion, $60 billion and $50 billion buyback announcements respectively. Microsoft and Meta announced their buybacks at the peak of the tech bubble late last year. Apple is in a class of its own having announced two consecutive $90 billion buybacks in April 2021 and April 2022. 

The other notable large announcements that did not make our top 5 list, include aerospace and defense company, Raytheon Technologies (RTX)  announcing a new $6 billion buyback on December 12, representing around 4% of its market cap at announcement. The new authorization replaces the company’s previous $6 billion program, approved on December 7, 2021. Kellogg (K) and Waste Management, Inc. (WM) also announced $1.5 billion share buybacks each representing around 6% and 2% of their market caps at announcement respectively. In total, for a second week in a row we saw 18 companies announce buybacks.

Our focus this week will be on Bermuda-based Triton International Limited (TRTN). Triton announced an additional buyback of $200 million on December 8, 2022. This represents around 5% of its market cap at announcement. TAL International Group Inc. and Triton Container International Ltd. merged together to form Triton International Ltd. in 2016. TAL International’s then-CEO Brian Sondey currently heads the combined company.

Triton is the world’s largest intermodal container leasing company with a market cap of a little over $4 billion and a market share of 26%. Its container fleet comprises of over 7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (“TEU”). The company is involved in the acquisition, leasing, re-leasing and subsequent sale of intermodal containers and chassis. It leases containers from 222 locations in 57 different countries and sells containers from 356 locations in 89 different countries. These numbers clearly indicate the scale of the company’s global presence.

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