STMicroelectronics proposes one more year for CEO Chery as the stock sinks 10% below its buyback price
The supervisory board wants shareholders in 2027 to keep Jean-Marc Chery for one more year, after granting him three years in 2024. ST is still up 97% in 2026, but a five-day chip rout has left the stock below every price the company paid in its own buyback last week.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
A one-year ask on a five-percent morning
Jean-Marc Chery's Tuesday began with a rout. A global chip sell-off knocked about 5% off STMicroelectronics at the European open 1. Into that tape came four paragraphs from Geneva: the supervisory board has asked Chery, ST's president and chief executive, to stay on for one more year. He accepted, and shareholders will vote at the 2027 annual general meeting 2.
One year now, three years last time
The length is the news. Shareholders reappointed Chery in May 2024 for a three-year term expiring at the 2027 meeting 3; the renewal now proposed runs twelve months 2. He runs a Franco-Italian chipmaker in which the French and Italian states jointly own 27.5%, and Italy's economy minister last year cited "criticism and opposition" toward him before the sides settled their differences 4. The company calls the decision a recognition of continuity, execution discipline and momentum 2.
ST paid more for its shares than the market now will
Between October 5 and 9, a broker for ST bought 346,538 of its own shares on Euronext Paris at a weighted average of €49.2425, spending €17.1 million to cover employee share plans 5. By Tuesday afternoon the market said €44.21, down 2.97% on the day and 14.93% over five days, though still up 97.13% since January 6. That sits about 10% below the company's average purchase price, and below every daily price it paid. The board signs its commitments in years; the market reprices them in days.
Every price ST paid for its own shares last week sits above the Tuesday tape
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| 5 Oct | €50.45 |
| 6 Oct | €51.74 |
| 7 Oct | €50.29 |
| 8 Oct | €48.26 |
| 9 Oct | €47.26 |
| 13 Oct | €44.21 |
Analysts have not moved with the tape
Oddo BHF kept its Outperform rating that same morning and trimmed its price target from €72 to €70 6. Twenty analysts average a target of $77.28 against a $50.90 close in New York, an implied gain of 51.84%, and even the lowest target, $55.22, clears the tape 7. The rally has substance too: June-quarter revenue was $3.49 billion, up 26% year on year, after seven straight quarters of decline 8.
Even the lowest of 20 analyst targets sits above ST's last New York close
- US dollars per share
- Estimate
Data
| US dollars per share | |
|---|---|
| Last NY close | $50.9 |
| Low target (estimate) | $55.22 |
| Average target (estimate) | $77.28 |
| High target (estimate) | $97.48 |
The buyback is small and the rout is not about ST
The week's buying covered 0.04% of issued capital and serves employee share plans rather than any call on value; ST holds 15.9 million treasury shares, about 1.7% of itself 5. The sell-off is a sector repricing rather than a verdict on ST: China's ChangXin Memory Technologies reported progress on a denser memory design, Intel+1.02% — Intel, up 1.02 percent today and Broadcom+0.39% — Broadcom, up 0.39 percent today chiefs warned that access to capital is the AI boom's next bottleneck, and UBP senior equity advisor Vey-Sern Ling called investors "jittery and looking for excuses to take profit" 1.
The quarter answers on October 29
Third-quarter results land before the European open on October 29 9. Watch two numbers after the print: whether analysts defend those targets, and whether ST's broker keeps buying at €44 5.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
