Which company announced a historic stock buyback?

• A. Amazon
• B. Walmart
• C. Microsoft
• D. Facebook

Answer: (B)

A stock buyback is when a company uses cash to buy its own shares from the market, which reduces the number of shares outstanding and can boost earnings per share and investor returns. When a buyback is described as historic, it usually means the plan is unusually large or significant for the company’s history or for the industry—a milestone that sets a new benchmark for how much capital is being returned to shareholders.

Walmart fits that description in this context because its announcement represented a milestone in the scale of its capital-return program, signaling a strong commitment to returning cash to shareholders and marking a notable moment for the retailer in terms of buyback size. The other companies have indeed engaged in buybacks, but the question highlights Walmart specifically as the one characterized by a historic move at that time.