Alaska Air Announces $1 Bln Stock Buyback Program

(RTTNews) - Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK), the parent of Alaska Airlines, said Thursday that its board of directors has approved a share repurchase program authorizing the company to buy back up to $1 billion of its common stock. This is the largest repurchase program in the airline's history, representing 10 percent of the stock market capitalization of the company.

The $1 billion repurchase program will begin after the existing $650 million buyback is completed. This will be Alaska's ninth repurchase program since 2007 and its largest ever, representing 10% of the company's market capitalization.

The company also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share, payable on September 1 to shareholders of record as of August 18.

Alaska Air Group began paying a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share in August 2013. The dividend was increased to $0.125 per share in February 2014 and increased again to $0.20 per share in January 2015.