Las Vegas Sands Corp. said it will repurchase $2 billion in stock, furthering founder Sheldon Adelson’s stated goal to return cash to shareholders.

Adelson, the Las Vegas-based company’s billionaire chairman and chief executive officer, announced the multi-year buyback at the company’s annual meeting Wednesday in New York, without giving specifics.

The move follows approval from Macau’s government to sell Four Seasons co-ops in the Chinese territory, where a Sands unit operates casinos. The company was considering a special dividend or a stock buyback, people with knowledge of the situation said in April. Adelson confirmed in May that the company was weighing such a move.

Sands stock fell 1.9 percent to end at $57.35 in New York. The shares, which had fallen as much as 2.1 percent earlier, had risen 27 percent this year as of Tuesday.