Normal Course Issuer Bid (NCIB)
A Normal Course Issuer Bid is the mechanism by which a Canadian public company buys back its own shares on the open market over time, within exchange limits, usually across a 12-month period.
What is a Normal Course Issuer Bid (NCIB)?
A company that believes its shares are undervalued can repurchase them through an NCIB, subject to TSX/TSXV rules that cap how much can be bought (typically a percentage of the public float) and require public disclosure of the bid.
Buybacks reduce the share count, which can support earnings-per-share and signal that management considers the stock cheap. Issuer repurchases appear in the insider-filing data because the company itself is a reporting party.
Like insider buying, an NCIB is read as a conviction signal — though it's the company deploying corporate cash rather than an individual risking personal capital, so the two are interpreted differently.