Strategy spends $950.8M buying STRC back toward $100

Strategy has repurchased nearly 9.96 million STRC preferred shares for $950.8 million since July 20 as the security recovered toward Strategy’s targeted $99-to-$100 trading range.

Strategy said in its Sept. 14 SEC filing that it bought another 1,420,467 shares of its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock between Sept. 8 and Sept. 13 for $139.3 million, using its USD Cash balance. The company sold no shares through its at-the-market programs and bought or sold no Bitcoin during the same period.

Adding Strategy’s eight weekly disclosures from July 20 through Sept. 13 produces 9,961,554 STRC shares repurchased for approximately $950.8 million. Bloomberg separately calculated roughly $950 million of purchases and estimated that Strategy represented around 18% of total STRC trading volume during the period.

STRC recovered from near $70 toward its $100 stated amount

STRC’s rebound followed a steep decline that had taken the preferred security to nearly $70, according to Bloomberg. The shares later reached $99.03 intraday on Sept. 14 before pulling back. STRC closed the latest completed U.S. session on Sept. 16 at $97.07 after trading between $97.01 and $97.95.

Strategy has explicitly set a corporate objective for STRC to trade between $99 and $100. Its August investor materials say management uses dividend-rate decisions, repurchases, liquidity management and issuance policy to support trading near the $100 stated amount. Strategy cautions that the target is “not a price guarantee” and says the policy can change.

The company currently pays a 12% annualized dividend on STRC, equivalent to $0.50 for each full semi-monthly period on $100 of stated value when the dividend is declared. Strategy’s board has declared $0.50 payments for the periods ending Sept. 30 and Oct. 15.

Management has said it does not currently intend to recommend changing the 12% rate until STRC demonstrates sustained trading near $100. Strategy’s existing policy is similarly not to sell new STRC below its $100 stated amount. Both policies are statements of management intent and are not contractual obligations.

That issuance policy ties STRC’s price directly to Strategy’s ability to use the preferred stock for new capital. Strategy CEO Phong Le previously said the company intended to resume issuance when Stretch returned to par, saying, “when Stretch gets back to par, we’ll issue more.” As crypto.news reported in July, management linked new STRC issuance with its ability to raise funds that could be directed toward Bitcoin purchases.

Strategy spent $950.8 million across eight buyback periods

Strategy began the current sequence by buying 288,930 STRC shares for $25 million between July 20 and July 26. The next week brought another 912,143 shares for $81.2 million.

Purchases accelerated in August. Strategy paid $108.6 million for 1,152,020 shares during Aug. 3–9, followed by $132.2 million for 1,388,720 shares during Aug. 10–16. Another 1,431,212 shares cost $136.4 million during Aug. 17–23.

During Aug. 24–30, Strategy repurchased 1,557,177 STRC shares for $151.8 million. The company bought 1,810,885 more for $176.3 million during the period ending Sept. 7, followed by the latest $139.3 million transaction.

Strategy originally authorized up to $1 billion for repurchases of its digital-credit securities in June, with STRC identified as its first priority when management considered purchases accretive. On Sept. 8, the board increased the total authorization to $2 billion, including purchases already completed.

After the Sept. 8–13 transactions, Strategy reported $1.05 billion of remaining preferred-stock repurchase capacity. Its separate $1 billion authorization for repurchasing MSTR common stock remained unused.

Strategy says purchasing STRC below $100 can retire $100 of stated value for less than that amount and reduce future preferred-dividend requirements. The company has said it intends to scale repurchases more aggressively when discounts are deeper and taper purchases as STRC approaches $100.

MSTR and Bitcoin sales supplied much of the buyback cash

Bloomberg traced roughly $765 million, or approximately 80% of the repurchase spending since July 20, to MSTR common-stock sales, including money first placed into Strategy’s cash pool before being used for STRC. Another roughly $161 million came from Bitcoin sales.

The Bitcoin-funded portion can be directly reconciled with Strategy’s SEC disclosures. During July 27–Aug. 2, Strategy sold 1,638 BTC for $104.73 million and allocated $52.3 million of those proceeds to STRC repurchases. The remaining $52.4 million funded preferred dividends.

A week later, Strategy sold 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million at an average net price of $64,262. The company said all proceeds from that sale funded STRC repurchases. Together, the two disclosed allocations equal $160.9 million, consistent with Bloomberg’s roughly $161 million calculation.

Common-stock issuance funded several later purchases directly. Strategy allocated $132.2 million of MSTR sale proceeds to STRC buybacks during Aug. 10–16, $136.4 million the following week and $151.8 million during Aug. 24–30.

For the first two reporting periods in September, Strategy funded $315.6 million of STRC purchases from its USD Cash account. The balance fell from $1.61 billion on Aug. 30 to $1.44 billion on Sept. 7 and $1.30 billion by Sept. 13. The separate USD Reserve stood at $5.10 billion.

Bloomberg cited analysts who questioned how STRC will trade once company purchases decline. Rajiv Sawhney of Wave Digital Assets told Bloomberg that “The price is the product,” arguing that STRC needs to stay near par to function efficiently as a funding instrument. Strategy itself warns in SEC filings that its repurchases and dividend policies may fail to keep the security near $100.

Strategy keeps Bitcoin at 845,050 BTC while buybacks continue

Strategy reported no Bitcoin purchases or sales for the two consecutive periods ending Sept. 7 and Sept. 13. Its holdings therefore remained at 845,050 BTC, acquired for an aggregate $63.73 billion at an average cost of approximately $75,412 per Bitcoin.

The company’s most recent Bitcoin purchase came during Aug. 24–30, when it acquired 4,603 BTC for $369.7 million at an average price of $80,318. Strategy funded that purchase with MSTR ATM proceeds during the same week while allocating another $151.8 million from common-stock issuance to STRC repurchases.

Across the July 20–Sept. 13 window, Strategy spent roughly $950.8 million repurchasing STRC compared with $369.7 million on newly acquired Bitcoin. The preferred-stock purchases therefore consumed more than twice the amount directed to new BTC acquisitions during that period.

As crypto.news previously reported, Strategy’s management had linked renewed Bitcoin financing through STRC to the preferred shares recovering toward their $100 stated amount. STRC was trading around $87 when that strategy was discussed in July.

Crypto.news reported that STRC had become the largest holding in three major U.S. preferred-stock ETFs while still trading below par in July. The report cited approximately $756 million held across the three funds at that time.

Strategy’s Sept. 14 filing leaves the next repurchase decision open. The company retains roughly $1.05 billion of authorized preferred-security buyback capacity, while its policy permits purchases to be increased, reduced, suspended or discontinued depending on STRC’s price, liquidity, available capital and other market conditions.