London, June 26, 2026, 13:01 BST
- Tesco has bought back £421.9 million of its planned £750 million since April 22, according to a filing on Friday.
- The stock was up 1.76% at 463.0p as of 12:46 BST, with London open for regular Friday trading.
- The buyback plus Friday’s final dividend take near-term cash returns over £1 billion.
Shares of Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) climbed Friday after a new buyback filing showed more than half of the company’s £750 million share repurchase program had been completed. Investors got a new per-share support after a weak UK sales reading last week. The shares were up 8.0p, or 1.76%, at 463.0p at 12:46 BST. London Stock Exchange regular trading runs until 16:30 BST.
FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) traded lower late this morning, off 0.77% as European tech dragged down markets overall. Tesco went the other way, with shares moving higher.
Tesco bought 5 million ordinary shares on June 25, paying an average of 457.15p each. The price for the day’s buyback ranged from 454.70p to 460.70p. Since April 22, the company has repurchased 92,644,755 shares, spending £421.9 million. Tesco now has 6,292,538,041 shares in issue, with no shares held in treasury.
Tesco has now used around 56% of its buyback programme. Numbers from the filing show the average buy price so far is roughly 455.4p, which is 1.7% under Friday’s delayed quote. With shares at 463.0p, Tesco could spend the £328.1 million left to get about 70.9 million more shares. This would bring the total shares cancelled in the programme to about 163.5 million, or 2.6% of the share base when it started.
Tesco is leaning on buybacks to lift its earnings-per-share. Adjusted diluted EPS for 2025/26 climbed 6.0% to 29.0p, part of that improvement down to a lower share count. Tesco set a final dividend of 9.7p—£619 million—payable June 26. Including the ongoing buyback, near-term cash returns total about £1.04 billion.
Tesco’s cash return stands out as sales come in less clean. The company posted first-quarter group sales of £16.826 billion, excluding VAT and fuel. Like-for-like sales grew 1.0%. In the UK, like-for-like sales were up 1.8%, but Booker dropped 3.2%. Tesco stuck to its 2026/27 guidance for adjusted operating profit at £3.0 billion to £3.3 billion, and free cash flow at £1.5 billion to £2.0 billion.
Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said on June 18 he was happy with first-quarter progress and pointed to better customer satisfaction, but warned that the Middle East conflict is creating uncertainty for households. Murphy told Reuters the previous year’s performance was “truly exceptional” and said: “I wouldn’t be reading too much into it.” MarketScreener UK
Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Tesco’s first-quarter trading was “a little lighter than markets had expected”, but said UK food growth was solid. Britzman said Tesco has enough free cash flow for price investment, dividends and buybacks. He cautioned that the valuation has pushed above its long-run average. HL
Charles Stanley’s Garry White told Reuters Tesco sticking with its guidance “should reassure investors” the company is handling price competition and margins even with a weak trading environment. MarketScreener UK
Loyalty is another recent focus. Tesco has opened its Clubcard program to 16- and 17-year-olds this week, bringing in younger convenience-store shoppers. Clubcard is already used by over 24 million UK households and features in more than 80% of Tesco transactions. “We’re delighted to be giving younger customers access,” said Shama Wilson, Tesco’s group membership and loyalty director. Which?
Tesco (LSE:TSCO) analyst targets cluster near the bottom. The median 12-month target from 13 analysts is 515p, with the highest at 560p and the lowest at 460p, according to Investors Chronicle. Tesco closed at 463p on Friday, just above the low target and about 11% under the median.
