WATERLOO, Ont. — BlackBerry Ltd. has a lot more than doubled the amount of stock it may repurchase from the public market by mid-2016.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based company said Friday it has repurchased 9.9 million common shares since June 29, 2015 – a couple of.1 per cent of the public float – at an average weighted cost of US$7.43 per share.
It has additionally received approval in the Toronto Stock market and Nasdaq to raise the ceiling on its 2015-16 share buyback program to 27 million common shares, up from 12 million shares.
The new ceiling represents 5.8 per cent of the BlackBerry shares in public places markets.
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Share buyback programs, formally called normal course issuer bids, give companies the chance – although not the obligation – to repurchase and cancel shares.
Companies often describe such buybacks in an effort to return cash to shareholders. Share buybacks also tend to support earnings per share because profits are divided among fewer shares.
Based around the average price taken care of stock repurchases to Jan. 29, BlackBerry paid about US$73.7 million. After the company’s fiscal third quarter on Nov. 28, it had US$1.46 billion in cash.
