The Day In Stock Buybacks (SMTC, ASI, EQR, DFS, LCUT, IBM, CPT)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Semtech (NASDAQ:SMTC) has purchased a total of 9,836,066 shares of its common stock for an aggregate price of $169.4 million under an accelerated buyback plan; it intends to resume purchasing shares of its common stock under its existing stock repurchase program, under which approximately $50.3 million of remaining authority exists.

CMGI Inc. (NASDAQ:CMGI) noted along with its earnings that it had spent $8 million over the last quarter of its $50 million share buyback plan.

American Safety Insurance Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:ASI) has approved a buyback program for up to 500,000 shares of common stock.  This is only about $9.5 million at current prices, and the company’s market cap is $204 million.

Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) has authorized an additional $500 million to be used in its share repurchase program. Since the beginning of 2007, the company has repurchased and retired 26,694,346 of its common shares at an average price of $44.88 per share for an aggregate purchase of approximately $1.2 billion. Approximately $3.8 million currently remains available under the $500 million program previously announced.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) will record a non-cash impairment charge related to its Goldfish MasterCard and Visa credit card business in the United Kingdom in the quarter ending Nov. 30, 2007 estimated as approximated $422 million in goodwill writedowns.  Separately, the company has approved a share repurchase program for up to $1 billion of its common stock through November 30, 2010.

Lifetime Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCUT) will close 30 underperforming outlet stores and its Board of Directors authorized an increase in the amount of its stock repurchase program to $40 million from $20 million.  Its market cap is $164 million.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that it plans to repurchase up to $1 billion of its outstanding common stock in open market transactions by the end of February 2008 rather than its original plans for March and April of 2008, are in addition to a $12.5 billion accelerated share repurchase announced earlier this year.

Camden Property Trust (NYSE:CPT) updated progress made on its stock repurchase program: During November 2007, Camden repurchased 1.6 million common shares at an average price per share of $52.03, for a total of $81.9 million. Year-to-date, Camden has now repurchased 2.9 million shares of common stock at an average price per share of $57.60, for a total of $168.4 million.

Jon C. Ogg
December 3, 2007

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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