Standard & Poor’s said Monday that third-quarter stock buybacks for the S&P 500 were up 44 percent on the quarter, but remained significantly lower than 2008 levels.

Third-quarter buybacks reached $34.8 billion, up sharply from the $24.2 billion seen the previous quarter, but note that in the second quarter of this year, S&P 500 buybacks hit their lowest level since 1998, when the firm first started tracking this type of data.

By comparison, third-quarter totals remained more than 61 percent below the results seen in the third quarter of 2008, and nearly 80 percent lower than levels seen in the period two years ago.

"As the market continued to recover in the third quarter, companies scaled up their buybacks from their anemic levels, but still maintained a low level of activity as cash-conscious corporate strategists maintained a close watch, and grip, on expenditures," said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Indices, in a release.

According to him, stock buybacks could jump another 10 percent in the next quarter, but going into 2010, overall buybacks should remain well below peak 2007 levels, as these kinds of expenditures are “highly correlated to the recovering economy,” he noted.

From a sector standpoint, financial sector buybacks jumped 80 percent in the third quarter from its second-quarter levels, but remained more than 92 percent below 2007 levels. Similarly, information technology saw a boost of 121 percent in the quarter, snagging a 30 percent slice of all buybacks in the period.

By contrast, energy sector buybacks dropped 15 percent in the quarter from its second-quarter levels.

In most cases, buybacks represent an attempt to either exercise some sort of price control on shares available or an attempt to raise capital. Either way, through buybacks, companies can invest in themselves.

You can read a complete breakdown here.