Northrop Grumman [NOC] on Wednesday announced a new $4 billion share repurchase program on top of its existing stock buyback authorization.
Through June, the company had repurchased 12.1 million of its common stock for $1.9 billion under the existing authorization, which put it at 90 percent of its goal of buying 60 million of its shares in 2015, Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman’s chairman, president and CEO, said in July on the second quarter earnings call.
In May 2013 Northrop Grumman authorized an additional $4 billion share repurchase program with a goal of retiring about 25 percent of its outstanding shares by the end of 2015.
On Wednesday Jefferies aerospace and defense analyst Howard Rubel in a note to clients said the new share repurchase program is a continuation of Northrop Grumman’s capital allocation strategy, which emphasizes stock buybacks with its cash. He believes the company is close to completing its existing repurchase plan.