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Buyback Capacity Is Rising Across 3 Soaring and Sinking Stocks

Submitted by Leo Miller. First Published: 6/19/2026.

Several key stocks across consumer staples, finance, and industrials have just added notable buyback capacity, but for different reasons. Two companies are boosting their authorizations as their stocks and businesses continue to perform well. Meanwhile, a company expanding across Brazil’s financial sector is signaling confidence in a rebound, even as market pressure weighs on its share price in 2026.

Monster Adds Buyback Capacity as Shares and Sales Soar

Energy drink giant Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST) has continued to deliver very strong performance in 2026 after a monster 2025. Last year, shares gained nearly 46%, and Monster’s return is hovering near 20% this year.

The company’s latest win was its Q1 2026 earnings report, which sent shares soaring nearly 14% afterward. Monster crushed estimates on both the top and bottom lines, posting sales growth of 22.6% year over year (YOY). Excluding currency tailwinds, sales still rose 26.9% YOY. The company also posted extremely strong results in its international business, with non-U.S. sales rising by a whopping 44.9% YOY.

Notably, Monster has also authorized a new $500 million share buyback program, bringing its total buyback capacity to $900 million. Monster’s buyback capacity is relatively small, but still meaningful, equal to around 1% of its market capitalization near $90 billion. With the firm generating more than $2 billion in free cash flow over the last 12 months, Monster has more than enough cash coming in to support this program.

Overall, given Monster’s success, this program signals that the company expects that momentum to continue. Notably, Monster’s buybacks over the last 12 months totaled just $221 million. The company’s added capacity gives it the option to accelerate that spending if it chooses to.

NU Initiates $1 Billion Buyback With Shares Down Over 30%

NU (NYSE: NU) has become a digital banking leader in Latin America, with a particularly strong presence in Brazil. In its latest quarter, NU’s Brazilian customer base surpassed 115 million. NU is the largest private financial institution in Brazil, with more than half of the country’s 213 million people now customers.

However, after posting an impressive 62% gain in 2025, shares are down more than 20% in 2026. The stock has also fallen more than 30% from its 52-week high. Macroeconomic risk has pressured NU shares, with the stock falling as oil prices rise and concerns over credit quality increase.

The company also hired a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Rob Livingston, causing shares to drop 8%. This heightened fears about credit quality, which past CFO Guilherme Lago strongly pushed back on.

Days later, NU approved a $1 billion share repurchase program, which it plans to carry out over the next 12 months. This would represent a substantial return of capital over a relatively short period, equal to around 1.7% of NU’s $60 billion market capitalization. NU’s net income in its latest quarter alone was $871 million, putting it in a solid position to execute this program. With shares having fallen significantly on concerns the company likely does not share, NU is signaling confidence in a recovery through its buyback program and likely sees value in its stock.

Rockwell Ups Buyback Authorization Amid Strong Results

Last up is Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK). After delivering a total return near 38% in 2025, the stock has continued to build on that impressive performance, with its return sitting near 20% in 2026. The company has been seeing strong demand for its industrial automation offerings across many key end markets.

Rockwell’s automotive end market saw mid-teens sales growth during its latest quarter, while e-commerce and warehousing automation sales rose more than 30% YOY.

Additionally, the company’s semiconductor end market posted high-teens growth, and its data center end market more than doubled YOY. Total sales rose nearly 12% YOY, and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) jumped over 30% YOY. The company beat estimates on both metrics and topped EPS expectations of $2.88 with a $3.30 result.

Rockwell also recently announced a $1 billion share repurchase authorization. This adds to the company’s previous buyback capacity, bringing its total authorization to $1.215 billion. That is meaningful, equal to around 2.3% of Rockwell’s approximately $52 billion market capitalization. The company’s solid $1.34 billion in free cash flow over the last 12 months gives it the ability to execute this program at a measured pace over time. The read on Rockwell’s buyback program is similar to Monster’s: the company has confidence in its continued success and is prioritizing returns to shareholders.

Rockwell: Diversified Growth and Capital Returns

Among this group, Rockwell’s diversified growth is particularly impressive. It's not often that companies are able to grow sales across several different end markets at a double-digit clip. The company has also returned a very significant $4.6 billion to shareholders over the past five years. Buybacks and dividends contribute to this, with Rockwell sporting a meaningful dividend yield near 1.2%. Still, the company’s valuation is worth monitoring. Currently, Rockwell trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio near 36x, above its three-year average of 27x.

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Allstate’s Comeback Is Turning Into a Profit Machine

By Peter Frank. Article Posted: 6/8/2026.

Big insurance companies often post big numbers—sometimes big in a good way, sometimes in a bad one. Just ask Allstate (NYSE: ALL).

Less than four years after reporting massive losses, Allstate has delivered a powerful turnaround, driven by strong underwriting, rising premiums, growing investment income and a higher dividend. Net income applicable to common shareholders rose more than fourfold from a year earlier, and earnings per share topped Wall Street expectations by nearly 50%.

Even so, investors remain cautious. As profitability surges, stockholders still have to weigh one unavoidable risk: a few bad storms can quickly reverse the story.

Allstate Engineered a Convincing Recovery

To understand why Allstate's first-quarter results are so striking, it helps to remember where the company was not long ago. Like many major property and casualty insurers, Allstate spent 2022 and 2023 under pressure. Repair costs for autos and homes surged with inflation, while state regulators pushed back against rapid rate increases. Allstate lost $1.4 billion in 2022 and $316 million in 2023, and its stock fell by about a third to roughly $100 per share.

Allstate responded with the tools available to insurers. It raised rates where it could, pulled back in markets where it could not, and tightened underwriting standards to weed out higher-risk customers. By 2025, the strategy produced $9.3 billion in adjusted net income, up 90% from the prior year, and $67.4 billion in total revenue, an increase of nearly 6%.

Strong Growth Continued Into 2026

The first quarter of 2026 extended that momentum. In the first three months of the year, Allstate earned $2.4 billion in net income, or $10.65 per share, more than $3 above analysts’ expectations. That compared with net income of $566 million in the year-ago quarter. Total revenue climbed 3% to $16.9 billion. Policies in force reached 212 million.

Each of its lines showed improvement. Earned auto insurance premiums rose 2.1% to $9.5 billion, while earned homeowners premiums grew 13.9% to $4.2 billion. As of March 31, Allstate had 25.8 million auto policies, up 2.6%, and 7.7 million homeowners policies in force, an increase of 2.5%.

Although it is the smallest by revenue, the company’s various protection plans and services make up the vast majority of its more than 200 million policies. That segment contributed $922 million in revenue for the quarter, up 7.2% from the year-earlier period.

A Lower Combined Ratio Is Driving Profitability

Beyond growth in the business, the key figure behind these results is the combined ratio. In insurance, this measures how much Allstate pays out in claims and operating expenses for every $100 it collects in premiums. The lower the number, the better. Better underwriting and improved efficiencies can explain much of the improvement, but weather and disasters also have to cooperate.

In the first quarter of 2026, Allstate posted a dramatic improvement in its overall property-liability combined ratio, which fell to 82 from 97.4 a year earlier. That stronger result also boosts the funds it can hold and invest, which is especially helpful in today’s higher-rate environment. Allstate earned $938 million from its investment portfolio in the quarter, up nearly 10% from $854 million a year earlier.

Catastrophe Losses Remain the Biggest Threat

Despite those numbers, Allstate’s stock has remained remarkably flat over the past year, similar to some of its publicly traded competitors such as Travelers (NYSE: TRV) and well ahead of Progressive (NYSE: PGR).

In May, investors were reminded why that is. On May 21, just weeks after Allstate announced its strong first-quarter results and just days after the stock reached a 52-week high, the company disclosed that estimated catastrophe losses in April reached $870 million before taxes, due to 10 separate wind and hail events across the country. About 70% of that total, it said, came from two storms.

Although the company entered storm season from a position of financial strength, no matter how disciplined an insurer's underwriting is, it cannot price away tornado season.

Analysts Still See Moderate Upside

Insurance investors and analysts are well aware that losses are part of the business.

Still, of the 21 analysts following Allstate, 11 rate the company a Buy. Nine suggest Hold and only one recommends Sell. Overall, the average rating is a Moderate Buy, with a 12-month average price target of $241.67, which is comfortably above the stock's current price.

The company also has a consistent dividend record. After a nearly 9% increase in February, Allstate’s quarterly dividend is currently $1.08 per share, continuing its 13% annualized five-year dividend growth.

The Stock's Future Depends on Managing Risk

Whether Allstate deserves a place in a portfolio of financial services stocks depends on the investor. The P&C insurance business is not going to change. It will have great years and bad years, and Allstate appears ready to handle both.

For income investors, the dividend yield is not especially compelling, but the steady increases add appeal. For value investors, whether Allstate has much more room to run remains to be seen. The company’s stock has roughly doubled since its recovery began in mid-2023. How much further it will go, and how fast, may depend on the winds.