Comcast raises its $20 billion share buyback program

Media juggernaut Comcast Corp. quadrupled its share buyback authorization to $20 billion on Wednesday after boosting it to $10 billion in January. After Comcast Corp. -6.25%, a cable TV and internet provider, increased its share buyback program to $20 billion, shares of the company bounced 0.9% in premarket trade on Wednesday, off the previous session’s 2 1/2-year closing low.

Comcast has bought back $9 billion worth of its common stock so far this year, or 6.1% of its market value, which stood at $147.67 billion as of Tuesday’s stock closing price while Johnson & Johnson also unveil share buybacks worth billions of dollars on Wednesday, ahead of a new tax on stock buybacks next year announcing a stock buyback of up to $5 billion.

Earlier on January 27, Comcast Corporation announced an 8% year-over-year rise in dividends, from $0.08 to $1.08 per share on an annualized basis. The Board of Directors also announced that its Board of Directors increased its share buyback program authorization to $10.0 billion, effective as of January 1, 2022. In accordance with the increase, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on the company’s common stock of $0.27 per share, payable on April 27, 2022, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 6, 2022.
The stock has been down 33.5% year to date through Tuesday, while the S&P 500 SPX, -4.32% has dropped 17.5%. It finished Tuesday at its lowest price since April 2020.