With today's announcement of the fourth tranche of its 2025 share repurchase program, Flutter Entertainment (NYSE: FLUT) informed investors that it anticipates repurchasing up to $245 million worth of its stock over the last three months of 2025.

The operator is on track to meet its declared objective of repurchasing at least $1 billion worth of its own shares in 2025 as part of a $5 billion repurchase scheme that was disclosed by FanDuel's owner last year.

"In 2025, we expect to return approximately $1 billion to shareholders via the program,” according to a press release. “Davy Securities UC will conduct the Buyback on Flutter’s behalf and will make trading decisions under the Buyback independently of Flutter in accordance with certain pre-set parameters.”

Following the release of Flutter's second-quarter results on Thursday, which revealed that it had repurchased $300 million, or 1.25 million shares, of its stock between April and June, the announcement was made on Friday. In the first three months of the year, the operator retired 891,000 shares, spending $230 million.

Flutter Financial Power Aids in Repurchase Initiatives

Following the earnings report, shares of the parent company of Betfair fell. This was a puzzling reaction given that Flutter increased its 2025 guidance, which took into account the effects of Missouri's December launch of online sports betting as well as recent tax increases in Illinois, Louisiana, and New Jersey.

“Group revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) are now expected to be $17.26 billion and $3.295 billion at the midpoint representing 23% and 40% year-over-year growth, respectively,” according to a press release.

Flutter has the capacity to fulfill the aforementioned commitments with regard to its corporate repurchase initiative without placing undue pressure on its balance sheet.  On a sequential basis, the company's cash on hand increased by $154 million to $1.7 billion at the end of the second quarter.

The $9.95 billion total debt as of June 30 "reflects the financing for the Snai and NSX acquisitions."

The Flutter Bull Thesis Is Still Valid

Strong online performance combined with underwhelming brick-and-mortar performance has been a recurring theme in the gaming industry's second-quarter profits.  In North America, Flutter has an asset-lite, online-only business model, which is fortunate for investors.

Analysts adore the stock because of its growth in North America, which is made possible by FanDuel, the impending football season, and Flutter's astute mergers and acquisitions (M&A) history.

“The underlying equity story remains very much on track, with product superiority driving leading market share, global footprint adding diversity, ongoing operating leverage, continued buybacks AND M&A, all set against a valuation that does not price in the >30% compound EBITDA growth,” said Jefferies analyst James Wheatcroft in a note to clients.