The company has also been putting its cash flow to good use. During the second fiscal quarter, it repurchased and retired 20,480,927 shares of its common stock (more than 5% of the total shares outstanding) at an average cost of $34.51, spending a total of $707 million. At the end of the period, $661 million was available under the company’s current repurchase authorization, which was put into place in early November.
With the shares now more of a bargain than they were then, I’d expect that authorization to be used up quickly. And when I look under the covers, I come away thinking management knows what they are doing by buying back the shares now.