Font Size

Business

E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Merrill Lynch In $6B Stock Buyback Plan

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

Recipient E-mail:*
- Your Name:*
- Your E-mail:*
Add a Message:
Send me a copy of this e-mail.

Type the characters in this picture:*

Click here to refresh with new letters

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

Print Share + Comments

Feb 27, 2006 9:41 am US/Eastern

Merrill Lynch In $6B Stock Buyback Plan

NEW YORK (AP) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1

Close

numSlides of totalImages

Wall Street firm Merrill Lynch & Co. said Monday it plans to repurchase up to $6 billion of its shares, saying the buyback is a sign of the company's continued financial strength.

"Our earnings and capital generation have been strong, as has been our focus on balance sheet efficiency, making it possible for us to expeditiously return capital to shareholders even as we continue to invest for growth," Chief Financial Officer Jeff Edwards said in a statement.

At Friday's closing price of $76.76, Merrill would buy back about 78.2 million shares if it completed the repurchase plan. The company had 919.2 million shares outstanding as of Dec. 31.

"While we have increased our quarterly common stock dividends by 25 percent in each of the past two years, we continue to emphasize repurchases in order to maintain capital management flexibility," Edwards said.

Merrill said it will buy back its stock from time to time depending on market conditions.