Strategy buys $22M in Bitcoin, repurchases $193M in STRC

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder, continued buying Bitcoin last week while spending nearly nine times as much repurchasing its preferred stock.

Strategy bought 267 Bitcoin for $22.1 million at an average price of $82,900 between Oct. 12 and Oct. 18, bringing its holdings to 848,517 BTC, according to a Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company also repurchased 1.94 million shares of its Stretch (STRC) preferred stock for $193.1 million and increased its digital credit securities buyback authorization to $3 billion from $2 billion.

The latest transactions extend a trend of management spending more on preferred stock repurchases than Bitcoin purchases, even as Saylor expects a return to a Bitcoin bull market.

Strategy’s STRC buybacks continue to outpace Bitcoin purchases

Strategy funded its latest Bitcoin purchase primarily through $22 million in proceeds from selling 140,872 shares of its common stock, MSTR, while using existing cash for the STRC repurchases.

The company has spent $459.2 million repurchasing STRC shares so far in the fourth quarter, more than six times the $72.3 million it spent acquiring 851 Bitcoin over the same period.

Related: Strategy conditionally declares daily dividends as STRC hovers below $100

STRC is a variable-rate preferred stock designed to pay regular dividends. Strategy has previously said it intends to repurchase shares trading below their $100 stated value to help support the stock’s price.

The company reported a $4.83 billion USD Reserve to support preferred stock dividends and debt interest payments, alongside $447.3 million in separate USD Cash holdings.

Saylor sees Bitcoin returning to a bull market

The heavier spending on STRC buybacks comes as Saylor expressed optimism about Bitcoin’s outlook during a discussion at ParaFi Investor Day on Saturday.

“We’re moving back into a bull market,” Saylor said, pointing to Bitcoin’s recovery above its 200-day simple moving average, a widely followed indicator of longer-term price trends.

Saylor identified restrictive trade, foreign and monetary policies as headwinds for BTC, while highlighting growing bank adoption and the tokenization of traditional financial assets as potential drivers.

Ahead of Monday’s Nasdaq open, MSTR shares were trading more than 2.5% higher in premarket activity, according to Yahoo Finance. The shares closed Friday down about 9.6%, at $138.83 apiece. STRC shares also gained around 0.8% in premarket trading to $98.45, after falling 1.8% on Friday.