Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) rose Tuesday, after reporting a $10-billion buyback plan.
At its investor event in New York, Monday, the company announced its Board of Directors authorized the discretionary repurchase of up to $10 billion of its outstanding common stock, in conjunction with newly announced plans to return at least 50% of free cash flow to stockholders beginning in fiscal 2019.
Said CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, "The data-driven economy will transform nearly every industry, and drive secular growth in demand for memory and storage. Micron is exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on these opportunities and deliver strong business performance and robust free cash flow.
"Our business results have dramatically strengthened Micron’s balance sheet and this stock buyback program emphasizes our ongoing commitment to enhancing shareholder value."
Micron may purchase shares on a discretionary basis, through open market purchases, block trades, privately negotiated transactions and/or derivative transactions, subject to market conditions and Micron's ongoing determination that it is the best use of available cash. The repurchase authorization does not obligate Micron to acquire any common stock.
The company boasts a status as "an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions. Through our global brands — Micron®, Crucial® and Ballistix® — our broad portfolio of high-performance memory and storage technologies.
"Backed by nearly 40 years of technology leadership,” the company’s site adds, “our memory and storage solutions enable disruptive trends, including artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous vehicles, in key market segments like cloud, data center, networking and mobile."
The stock climbed $3.31, or 6%, to $58.79.
