Wednesday’s announcement is not just a new buyback plan. This is a buyback plan on top of another share buyback plan. Another win is that this new plan is effective immediately and is aimed to replace the prior share buyback plan.
What really stands out here is that Qualcomm just initiated its last $5 billion buyback plan on March 5, 2013. Since July 24, 2013, the company showed that it has spent some $2.7 billion to repurchase roughly 40.1 million shares of its common stock.
We would also point out that Qualcomm increased its dividend earlier in 2013 by some 40%. Today’s buyback is said to be in line with the aim of returning capital to stockholders while also allowing Qualcomm to keep making investments in new technologies and investing in future growth opportunities.
Qualcomm now claims to have returned over $25 billion to stockholders since 2003 via share buybacks and dividends. There may be even more capital returned sooner rather than later as well. The company’s closing remarks said, “We intend to further discuss capital allocation at our upcoming Analyst Day in November.”
Qualcomm closed down almost 3% on Wednesday at $68.09 against a 52-week range of $57.29 to $70.37. The company’s market cap is now about $116 billion. Qualcomm seems to be in such a good a position that it is literally almost printing money.
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