Posts for Ticker ‘ASI’

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

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

Posted on: December 3, 2007 – 5:59 pm in Stock Buybacks, , , , , , ,

Big List of Private Equity Targets in Financial Services

There is a recent boutique research report from earlier in the week showing a list of potential private equity targets from a specialty brokerage firm that I was very positive on from even before its IPO: Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW).  The truth is that this company is probably only behind Goldman Sachs (GS) as far as its knowledge of what is going on in the North American financial services sector, and the argument is that KBW is considered the number one firm as far as independent coverage of the financial services sector.  It is too bad the company did not get this out at the end of last year to include many other names that have been gobbled up, but it really feels as though every firm is ‘cramming for finals’ in the M&A world with the private equity superstars.

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Posted on: May 31, 2007 – 9:32 am in Bait Shop, Banking, Financial Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, Private Equity, Research, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,